Shifted
by Nyx Goldstone
Summary: What happens when a fan of Otherworld lands in the North American Pack's back yard? WARNING: Self-insert fanfic that happened because I was bored...and work was really, really slow.
1. Caged

**Title:** Shifted - A Women of the Otherworld Fanfiction  
**Written by:** Nyx Goldstone  
**Disclaimer:** It's Kelley's sandbox, she's just kind enough to let me build my imaginary castles in it. More officially, Otherworld characters and such are ©Kelley Armstrong  
**Rating:** PG - Strong language, mild violence  
**Author's Note:** I was inspired to write this when I read an amusing Pirates of the Caribbean self-insert called "The Damsel and the Distressed." Shifted started out as a break from another fanfiction story of mine, but then took over my braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain!!

**Caged**

"You fought like hell last night. I'm not sure if we should be impressed or not."

The woman's voice echoed through my head as I blinked away the darkness that inked out my vision. I tried to sit up, but a wave of nausea and a pain that protested my moving shoved me back onto the cold concrete under my back. I lay there a few minutes, my hair fanned out above my head as the floor surface cooled the back of my skull.

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuckk..." I finally managed to groan. With the effort of someone carrying a lead weight strapped to their wrist, I managed to cover my face with my arm. The aches and protests that my body was giving me seemed to cement the decision that a week of twelve hour work days followed by a night of drinking alone will never again be on my to-do list. That, or experimenting with the liquor cabinet's contents should be removed from said list. Yeah, that one is better.

I was barely aware of the shuffling of feet on concrete until I heard a second voice, male this time. "I'll take over from here." Two sets of feet moving around somewhere near my head, the scrape of a chair moving followed by hesitant footsteps retreating from the room.

Something in my brain suddenly clicked. Who did these voices belong to? I didn't have any roommates. I moved out of that situation a couple weeks ago. Besides, the one guy that I shared the old place with had the barking voice of someone who was constantly under strain, whether or not it was true. This guy sounded like, um, not that. Quieter, calmer, and definitely a tenor if not a baritone.

I shot up to a sitting position, coming face to face with a stone wall. I blinked as if it would clear the sight of the wall from my eyes, like it does that pre-waking up gook when I slept too hard. I didn't have stone walls in my apartment. Shit, I don't even think the pathway from the garage to the apartment was even real stone! I lived in Southern California, for Christ's sake... Nothing there was real except the smog; but, here I was, staring at my faint shadow on a real stone wall.

A light cough and the slight scrape of a chair being moved as someone stood up reminded me that I wasn't alone. I turned quickly at my waist and flinched when I felt and heard my spine line up with the sudden movement. What the hell had I been doing that I was so out of whack? I felt warm and dizzy, like when I start coming down with the flu, but that didn't explain why I was here and not at home. Nightmare! That had to be it! Nightmares have been plaguing me for the last few days, and I went and made it all sensory encompassing by drinking myself into a stupor.

I was no stranger to fighting my way through the feeling of illness, so it wasn't much of a struggle to scramble to my feet and face the person behind me. Succeeding on getting to my feet was a different story all together, though. I hadn't felt such deep, fall-inducing pain since I slipped with my utility blade in art class and had to get stitches. My right leg buckled under my weight and sent me back down to the floor.

"Sunova-BITCH!" I heard myself snarl, pressing my hand to my jeans at my thigh where I found a slash in the fabric and a bandaged but freshly bleeding wound. I shut my eyes, clenched my teeth and sniffed. It was the sniffing that gave me a reason to pause. Most of my life I've had sinus problems so strange that nothing short of my ENT going in and reconstructing my sinus passages would allow me to smell anything stronger than straight peppermint oil stuffed right up my nose. In other words, I had no sense of smell worth mentioning. Or, at least, I hadn't. Until now.

While I was sniffing the air, taking in the unusual scent of laundry detergent, fabric softener, water, and my own blood, the figure that stayed behind the bars shifted again and spoke softly to me.

"What's your name?"

I blinked and looked up at the silhouette above me. Tall, lean, and that was all I could tell with him being back-lit by the light behind him. I opened my mouth, then hesitated a half second while I changed my mind. "Nyx." Sure, it wasn't my given name, but why should it matter to this guy? I was in a cage while he wasn't. I damned sure wasn't going to give him any more of the upper hand than he already had.

He was silent a moment, and I was sure he knew that I wasn't being truthful. "I suppose the Greek goddess born of Chaos is a suitable enough name to call you by, given your current situation."

Crap. Busted.

"I... I don't know who you are, and I won't ask. Just let me go home." I hated when I sounded whiny, too proud to show weakness in front of anyone, no matter who they were. This time, though, I couldn't help myself. "Blindfold me, drop me off two towns down, I don't care. I won't tell anyone anything. Just let me go home."

"And where is home, Nyx?"

I decided to not lie this time. "Santa Ana, 'bout fifteen minutes from Disneyland."

The moments seemed to stretch on as the shadowed stranger before me didn't answer. Finally, he spoke: "Vacationing, then? Perhaps visiting family? Did you just decide to wander around the rural area of New York for fun, or do they live around here?"

"Wh-what?!" I spoke without thinking. I do that sometimes. "I—New York? Los Angeles is the furthest any family that I'd visit stretches! What the fuck are you talking about?" I suddenly felt woozy, but if it was from the fever, the blood loss, or being told in a round about way I was in rural New York I wasn't sure what was the cause.

I watched as the man shook his head and turned his back toward me and headed toward the door. I scrambled to my feet, thinking that he was leaving. I knew I had a nice, high pain threshold, but I didn't know how high until that very moment. I fought through the aches of the fever and the pains of the wound in my right leg to get to the bars that separated me from my only source of finding out what the hell was going on.

He wasn't leaving though. What he did was flick a light switch, summoning life into a bright overhead light. I blinked against it, barely aware of the tiny daggers poking me behind my eyes with the sudden brightness. He turned back toward me, moving with the silent grace of a wild predator. Black eyes that tilted up in a barely noticeable slant, long and scruffy black hair tied at the nape of his neck, and tall. My breath caught in my throat as the description clicked.

"Jeremy Danvers..." I whispered.

Something changed behind his eyes, but his expression remained unreadable. "How do you know who I am?"

I avoided his eyes, instead looking to the side. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you..." I mumbled. His silence was not reassuring, so I looked at him again. "Why am I locked in here?" I was already dreading the answer.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

My heart sank. "Maybe more than you realize..."

Jeremy left me that first night without an explanation or an opening to demand one and I didn't see him again for a while after that. Exactly how long, I wasn't sure. One can't exactly measure the passage of time from a cage in someone's basement. Most of it, though, was spent in blissful darkness. Having read the Otherworld novels and stories so often that I knew them by heart, I was thankful for the black oblivion that followed the itchy and stretching feeling that came before Changing. I didn't want to think about what I did when I turned into a wolf. All I knew was that it must have been bad to leave me locked up. Or, maybe, I had given away any advantage I had when I let Jeremy know that I knew who he was without explanation.

Either way, there was just too much for me to think about. I was in a fictional world, but at least one I knew as well as any fanatic reader could. I may not be Kelley Armstrong herself, but I read every online fiction, author-written "encyclopedia" and forum FAQ that I could. I knew the possibilities of what I could come up against and even some of how to deal with them. What I didn't know was how to control the curse that had been given me.

Funny that I would call it a curse. I had exactly what every wolf Therian dreamed of: the ability to physically become a wolf. Shame that I wasn't a wolf Therian. I identified more with tigers; the ones with the genetic mutation of being "white" tigers rather than the standard orange, to be specific. Maybe I should have taken it as a lovely consolation prize that my totem animal was Wolf. Where was that bastard now that I needed his fucking guidance?

I was starting to remember the hours that I would usually be blacked out. I still couldn't control myself, though, so whether or not this was good or bad was still a toss-up. Clay and Elena would sometimes watch over me during the Changes, I guess to make sure I survived. What did it matter, though, if I lived or not? As far as they knew, I was one of the "mutts" that needed to be exterminated. Was it just more satisfying if I was able to see them coming as they killed me? I had also noticed early on that my bandaged leg would get fresh dressings every so often. I could only assume that it was Jeremy doing it, since he had the closest thing to medical training. Thank the gods I paid attention to those novellas before Kelley took them down. Then again, would I still be in this situation if I hadn't picked up the series?

Another detail that I never let myself forget was the appetite of a werewolf. They fed me generously and I had no problem finding a place for all that food. Not that eating was ever a problem for me before. I was actually kind of curious how this would turn out, considering I had the body that was very appealing to men in the countries of my ancestry, but was just a lard-ass compared to what was appealing in modern America. Damn Italian/Jewish heritage...

During my lucid moments I would try to engage Clay and Elena in conversation. Nothing more deep than trying to find out what they had planned for me, but they were tight-lipped. During my monologues I had started to wonder how much I fucked up by letting it be known that I recognized Jeremy, that I was trying to talk to my captors, that I was just there in general. All that inner debate would become inconsequential the day I was completely aware and in control of myself during the Change.

I suppose the tip off for the Pack was that when I didn't black out, I panicked instead. I stopped mid-Change, stuck between forms and scared shitless about what was happening to me. My monster movie screams that were part human and part wolf brought Jeremy running down. He coaxed me through the change, guiding me into my wolf form and stood there as I panted and whimpered on the stone floor. I let out another low moan as I stared at my paws and the dark brown, almost black fur that covered my arms. I was so screwed.

Stuck in that form for hours, I paced the cage. My emotions were alternating between thankfulness that I was protected behind these bars and irritation that I was trapped there. I wanted to run. To just stretch my new legs and test this new sense of smell that I developed. I knew it wouldn't happen, though. In the off chance that Jeremy did let me out, I was sure that Clay would make sure to follow me and rip me apart at any sign of trying to escape. So, I just settled for letting out a pitiful whine each time my muzzle got up close and personal with the bars of the cage.

All I really wanted to do was explore this whole world that opened up all of a sudden. My nose twitched with each scent that passed by. The colors that I could and could not see changed through my new eyes. Speaking as someone who attended art school from high school on, that there was no end to fascinating. I allowed myself a brief moment to wonder if I could replicate this visual world when I shifted back...if I shifted back.

If...

I had already been too long in this new body to be comfortable with it and caged. I whined as I realized that I could very well be _stuck_ like this. My black and blunted claws made scraping noises as I pawed at the bars and stone beneath me. I didn't know how to ask for help with words, I sure as shit couldn't when I didn't have vocal chords that could form words. I whined again and looked at Jeremy, who had relieved Elena earlier after my panic.

Jeremy watched me from the chair across the room. Watched and waited, I was sure for me to show signs of changing back. I would have been happy to. I just didn't know how. Just as I was thinking that I would be stuck as a brown-black wolf forever, Jeremy stood up and crossed the room until he was right in front of the cage. He spoke to me in that deep, quiet, soothing voice of his. I couldn't make out the words right away, but I could tell he was coaxing me, encouraging me. Eventually I manged to pick out words, helpful ones even. I lost them midway through the Change back, but was able to shift back to my human form. I collapsed on the stone floor, panting as I did before. I couldn't help but wonder what a bitch these Changes would be if I didn't have such a high pain threshold.

I didn't have the strength to move when I heard the door of the cage creak open and the heavy warmth of a wool blanket over my shivering, naked form. I was just so tired... I remember mumbling something about being exhausted, but pushing myself up onto my own two feet. It didn't matter to me how much a werewolf could bench press without breaking a sweat. I wasn't about to let someone carry me, let alone someone who I only knew as the figment of an author's imagination. My hand went to my face to wipe my eyes, and that was when I noticed that I wasn't wearing my glasses. I looked behind me, into the cage, expecting them to be laying there. Everything was so clear though, from the bars to the bed. I held my hand out in front of my face and closed my left eye. The edges of my hand didn't blur. The true test came when I did the same with my right eye, to be pleasantly surprised that the usual result of my hand becoming a blurry flesh-toned blob didn't happen. Becoming a werewolf apparently is better than getting lasik. Jeremy guided me up the basement stairs to the first floor where I came face-to-face with Clayton Danvers.

Clay was always described in the books a being at a model-level of hotness with a well-muscled build. I believe "traffic-stopping gorgeous" is a direct quote from the one of the novels. But, I've never been into physique, especially that variety. If Clay was someone I met under—different circumstances—it would be his golden curls and intelligent, piercing blue eyes that would have made me stop and think "Yep, I'd never catch a man that looked that good in a million years." He didn't exactly tower over me, but my five-foot-seven versus his six-even and intimidating gaze definitely made me feel less than I was.

Unable to hold that hardened gaze, I shifted my eyes to the right to look further down the hall instead. My line of vision was obstructed by Elena Michaels...or was it Danvers? Now that I think about it, Armstrong never did clearly say if Elena took on Clay's and Jeremy's last name when she gave in and considered herself officially married to Clay. I wasn't thinking about that then, though. Just the slight twinge of female jealousy that Elena was everything I wanted to be: tall, slender, athletic, blue eyed... The white-blond hair I could do without, though. Too typical-perfect-heroine for me. Besides, I'd hate to be at the butt of all those blond jokes, and I was sure that she did, too.

A low, threatening growl from Clay forced me to look away from Elena as well and down at the floor. Carpeting... Very nice. I wondered where they got it from. Probably mail-order, if I know the characters as well as I think I do. My distraction was interrupted by Jeremy squeezing my shoulder firmly through the blanket and steering me toward the front of the house. I could hear Elena's and Clays footsteps following behind us.

A set of clean men's clothing was draped over the back of a chair and a large platter of cold-cuts were laid out on the sunroom table, waiting for us. The smell of the meat sent rumbling through my stomach, startling me a bit. I've been hungry before, working 12 hour double shifts and ingesting little more than an energy drink (much to the chagrin of my former roommates), but my stomach never had betrayed me by growling. The sound of it was strange in my ears and I stopped, thinking it was one of the werewolves behind me growling instead.

Jeremy took my stopping as an opportunity to step around me. He reached for the clothes on the back of the chair, handed them to me, then pulled out the chair for me to sit in when I was ready. Quite the gentleman. As Jeremy took a seat in another chair at the head of the table, Elena and Clay took up their positions around him; Elena in a chair to his right, Clayton standing rigid and ready behind them. I blinked slowly, the clothes still clutched tightly in my hands, confused of what they were expecting of me. I didn't care that they saw me naked right after I changed, they weren't going to have a second opportunity. Without even thinking about it, I looked behind me to my left and my right for a spot with privacy. The movement must have seemed like I was looking for an escape route because the warning growl from Clay left no doubt in my mind of what they wanted of me: Drop the blanket, put on the damn clothes, and sit the fuck down.

I did as I was almost told. Once clothed and sitting, my stomach rumbled again as the closeness to the food made the scent that much stronger. I braved a glance to my captors, but there was no response. I may not have wolf instinct, but I knew enough about them to know that it would be stupid to just help myself. I was the newbie, the outcast, the Omega...not a position I was used to. I sat, stared, and waited. Jeremy helped himself first, followed by Elena and Clay. Once they were clear of the platter, I heaped a small mountain of ham, turkey, and salami on my plate and dug in. No one said anything until stomachs were full and the eating had stopped. I had surprised myself again just how much food I put away.

"Now," came Jeremy's quiet voice from down the table, "Care to explain to me how you know who I am?"

"I already said," I muttered, "you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"You put up a good fight against that mutt, and were obviously just at the wrong place at the wrong time." I looked at Elena as she spoke. "So, you obviously weren't _told_ about the Pack before you were bitten."

"Not told in the way that you think, no."

I saw Clay's eyes flash at my response. He was getting frustrated with my word games. My problem was that the true answer could land me in just as big a flame as withholding the information. I looked at each werewolf in turn, weighing my options. My life was being held in a delicate balance that I did not know how to explain my way out of. It was one thing to tell your friends that you saw shadows where there shouldn't be, it was a whole other ballgame to explain to these three that I had somehow woken up, post bite, in a fictional world where werewolves, vampires, and zombie-controlling necromancers not only existed, but thrived under the radar of normal society. Yeah, piece of cake...

That was when another realization smacked me upside the head. I was post-bite. I was a turned werewolf, like Elena. _No shit, sherlock_, a small voice in my mind said. _There's only one hereditary female werewolf in the book, and she isn't even in her terrible-twos yet._

Of course, my mind, being the happy wanderer that it is, wondered if Kate and Logan were even born yet. At exactly what point of the time line was I dropped into? Or was it even the same time line? Was I in an alternate universe, once or a hundred-thousand times removed from the one the novels were set in? If I was, how far removed? How different would this version be from the one I read? Maybe they really were toying with me, and Jeremy had grown up the apple of Malcom's eye. No, that wasn't possible. The protege of a bloodthirsty murder wouldn't give me a blanket and feed me. He would have killed me on the spot, not even bothering bringing me back to Stonehaven. The panic that I was starting to feel rising eased a bit as I reassured myself that I was mostly fine, at least for now. I hadn't realized that I was hyperventilating until a slight attack of feeling lightheaded had blurred my vision. Considering I almost failed regular physics in high school, I decided I should probably leave the issue and possibility of additional quantum physics out of it.


	2. Dinner

_Disclaimer and summary: See first chapter!_

**Dinner**

With three pairs of eyes locked on me, it was an understatement to say I felt nervous. I knew that they knew it, too. How couldn't they? I was able to smell my own fear coming off me in waves. I brought my thumb to my mouth and chewed on the half-grown nail, knowing that eventually I'd have gnawed on it so much that I'd end up biting it off and starting the process over again.

As I half-chewed, half-sucked on my thumbnail, I shifted my gaze to Jeremy. He was the only one of the group who didn't have some variation of the "Think about doing anything and you die" look to him. I watched as he sighed and sat up in his chair, as if he had reached a difficult decision.

"Do you remember what happened last week?"

I shook my head.

"What do you remember, then?"

I was sure that I could fudge the details on this answer a bit. "Sitting down in front of my computer after unwinding a bit. I had some intention to get some manip work done, but I think I ended up just passing out in my chair."

His brow twitched in the slightest furrow of confusion. "We had tracked a mutt to you, just before he attacked you on an empty backwoods street. I..._we_ were rather surprised how well you fought him off. But, the damage was already done. He had bitten you, and you had survived, so we brought you here."

My eyes darted from Jeremy to Clay then Elena, the vague memory of Elena's comment when I woke up that first time flitting through my mind. When I chose to not speak, Jeremy continued.

"You know about us, though. I want to know how."

I knew I wasn't quiet in the clear yet, and that the whole truth and nothing but the truth won't help me here, so I pulled the best load of bullshit I could think of. "I was asking about your place. I had seen it while cruising around before, so I asked the locals. Just the regulars at some doughnut place not too far from here."

All I could do was pray that my attention to detail in books would save my ass here. None of them were buying my story, I could tell in their eyes, but at least I didn't say anything that _couldn't_ be true. It was all very possible. In a rural town like this one, everyone knew everyone and was all up in their neighbor's business. I just hoped that they'd accept that the locals would tell an outsider about the family who made outsiders of themselves with their isolation.

Jeremy lowered his eyes from mine and shook his head. A wave of sad anxiety washed over me, as if I was ten years old again and caught in a lie that disappointed my father. I rolled my shoulders, trying to shrug it off. Jeremy, though, pushed himself away from the table and Elena stood with him.

"You'll be staying here until you've got yourself under control."

I blinked at Jeremy, halfway in the process of clearing the table. "In the cage?" I could hear the half-whimper in my voice.

To my relief, Jeremy shook his head. "There's one extra bedroom upstairs. It'll be yours until a decision is made."

With that, Jeremy left with Clay right behind him. Elena and I collected the dishes in silence and carried them into the kitchen, where they were rinsed and dropped into a dishwasher. As I was leaning against the counter, lost in how I was going to keep up my charade of half-truths, Elena broke the silence.

"You're going to need clothes. You can't wear Clay's old shit forever."

I looked up at her and frowned. "And how am I supposed to get those? Forgetting the fact that my wallet's MIA, my bank account is pathetic enough as it is."

"Don't worry about it."

I frowned as she pulled her car keys from her pocket and jangled them at me. My frown turned to a scowl as she turned her back on me and headed toward the garage. Great, now I was going to be in financial debt to fictional characters to boot.

It wasn't that I hated shopping. Quite the contrary. Drop me off at a bookstore, electronics store, or even an art store and you probably won't find me for a couple hours at least. Clothes shopping, though? Ugh... Hated it. I made sure to memorize every variation on women's sizing that I possibly could just so I could go in, see something I want, grab my size and get the hell out of there.

Elena made sure that I picked up enough shirts and pants to last me a week, enough so I wouldn't have to do laundry every day. The trip had taken longer than we anticipated, though. The wannabe mall that we went to had a few name places that I recognized, but most of them weren't anything I had ever heard of. One thing I did notice, that was far different from California, was that as many diet and health food places there were back home, there was at least twice as many bakeries and mom-and-pop places out here. With my newfound sense of smell, I kept stopping and sniffing the scent of the various baked goods that wafted out of these stores. This place was a super model's nightmare.

At the first signs of stomach rumbling, Elena steered me into the first diner we came to and invited me to order anything I wanted. My stomach voiced it's impatience as I looked over the menu, nearly salivating over my choices. I settled on the diner's home-made chicken pot pie. After the waitress took my order, I took a good look around the room we were in. It was typical of that backwoods, homegrown, family operated diners. The benches at the tables were a lumpy comfortable only in that odd way that places like this can have. I drank deep the scents of cooking sausage, bacon, ham-steaks, eggs...the usual foods that the average Southern Californian avoided. Too many carbohydrates, fats, salt, sugar...

Upon returning to Stonehaven, later that afternoon, I had to admit to myself that it felt good to be back in my personal style of clothing. The whole wearing the guy's shirt the morning after thing got old pretty quick. It was awkward, though, walking around with empty pockets. The small weight of my keys, cell phone, and wallet were a comfort to me. While out with Elena, I actually stopped in front of a T-mobile store and considered getting a cell phone. What would I have needed it for, though? I didn't have the number to contact anyone at Stonehaven or Elena's cell number. Just because they were letting me stay there didn't make me their pack mate. I was still little more than a mutt to them, scum of the earth and overall not worth their attention most of the time.

Even so, they treated me as politely as they would any stranger who happened into their home. Elena, having had lost me for a couple hours in the local used bookstore, showed me the study where Jeremy kept all his books. I was scanning the titles on the shelves, nose wrinkled at the complete lack of fiction, when someone joined me.

"You won't find anything like the titles you were browsing in the bookstore."

I turned my head to look at Jeremy over my shoulder, surprised for only a moment until I figured that Elena had told him about my "escape" to the dead-tree section of the store. I turned the rest of the way to face him, nodding a bit. "Yeah, they probably won't hold much interest to me anymore."

He raised an eyebrow, my only encouragement to continue.

"I was always on the hunt for the perfect werewolf novel. Something that cast a different light on the creatures." I smiled a bit as my gaze went to the fire. "Found it once..."

I wasn't ready to tell them yet. That the once was what landed me in this situation, several years after my discovery. I still remember the email that I had sent to Kelley Armstrong, thanking her for writing novels that told the story of a werewolf, not a rabid beast. I even remember how excited I was that she wrote me back only six days later. I was sure that she didn't bother with personal emails. I had already known that she got the idea for a more humane werewolf based on an X-Files episode, but reading that she agreed that we share the same opinion on the werewolf legend still had given me that warm, fuzzy, my-hero-is-talking-to-me feeling.

I looked up from the fire to see Jeremy still staring at me, as if expecting me to go on. When I didn't, he broke the silence. "There's food served in the sunroom. You're welcome to join us." Without waiting for me to respond, he turned and left the study.

"Us" included the _whole_ pack as I knew it. Jeremy, Clay, Elena and the Sorrentinos which consisted of Nicholas and his father, Antonio. Nick and Antonio both had dark, wavy hair, that they wore cut short and large brown eyes. That was where the similarities between father and son stopped. While Nick was tall, slender, and neatly groomed, Antonio was just barely taller than me, with wide shoulders and biceps that made me wonder how often he thought of becoming a pro wrestler.

I leaned against the door frame as the floor seemed to lurch under me. The Danvers household I could handle, but the whole pack? Shit, this was going to take some seriously creative Sidhe-style fibbing. I was just about to excuse myself back to the study to rethink my situation when strong hands steadied me. I blinked and looked up at Nick, blushing a bit at his disarming grin. Blushing more at blushing, I looked away from him down at his hand that gripped my arm with enough firmness to support me but not restrain me. I don't remember what I mumbled, later I hoped it was a word of thanks, but the next thing I knew I was sitting at the head of the table in the sunroom, flanked by Nick and his father.

Nick had slid a plate with two of the largest pieces of steak I'd ever seen on it toward me with a smile and a wink that could only mean "there's more where that came from." I bit my lip nervously and busied myself with the food, trying to keep from blushing again. It wasn't that I didn't like Nick, it's just that I knew already what type of guy he was.

At forty-something, he didn't look much older than my twenty-five. Chalk that up to werewolf genes, the ultimate in the fountain of youth. He was known as the playboy of the Pack, chasing tail yet always the gentleman about it. Definitely a dinner-and-a-movie-first guy, and usually something very upscale at that. If I didn't already have to worry about being put down as a rabid mutt, his playboy status would make me wary enough of him. I like fun-loving guys, just not that kind of fun-loving. Call me old-fashioned...

After supper, the questions started up again.

"Where you from, Nyx?"

I eyed Antonio warily. My gaze must have been less wary and more humorous because his booming laugh made me jump.

"Okay, I'm sure you've had enough of these probing questions from Jer. How about this one, then. You're sure taking this whole being bitten by a werewolf well. I wonder why that is?"

"I have a strong belief that humans aren't the only species of it's kind on the planet," I murmured. "Creative, intelligent...." I paused a moment and rolled my eyes, "relatively intelligent, though to have gotten this far I'm sure they had a good amount of help." I smirked a bit.

"Dislike the humans even though you were one! Sounds like our own Clayton, doesn't it?" Nick laughed. This only earned him a smoldering glower from Clay across the table.

I smiled a bit as I picked at the steak remains on my plate. It actually felt kind of good to have a friend on my side, no matter how much that feeling was wishful thinking on my part.

"Perhaps it's not so much a dislike for humans as the herd mentality of them. It's all about one-upping each other, no matter what or whom you hurt, but crying pity party when it doesn't work in their favor." I turned my gaze to Clay, keeping it level and just on the safe side of challenging. "The world is hard for a lot of people. Not everyone in it expects hand-outs."

The table went as quiet as when we were eating. I swore at myself silently, realizing that I may very well have offended someone at best, or driven away the one person actively trying to be my friend through all this at worst. I was not getting off on the right foot here. I excused myself from the table and high-tailed it up to the guest bedroom that Jeremy had set up for me. Guess I couldn't quite call it "mine" just yet. The complete lack of decoration and furnishings besides a bed and simple dresser made it quiet obvious that I wasn't home. Not that I was missing home or anything. In fact, I didn't feel homesick at all. A small voice in the back of my mind told me, screamed at me, that this was something I should be worried about. Why wasn't I trying to find a way back home?

A knock at the door stopped me from answering my own question. A quick sniff (Goddess, would I ever get used to this?) told me that Antonio was on the other side. I stood frozen a moment, a brief wave of unfounded panic washing over me and rendering me paralyzed before I coughed and cleared my throat to shake myself free of it.

"Yeah?"

Antonio let himself in just as I was plopping myself down on the bed. "We were thinking of going on a post-supper run. Care to join us?"

"We?" I tilted my head to the side, curious who "we" entailed.

"Jeremy prefers to run alone, so he'll probably be going some other time. It'll just be Clay, Elena, you, me, and Nick"

I chewed nervously on my lower lip. "I didn't... I didn't hurt Nick's feelings with my comment downstairs, did I?"

Antonio fell into surprised silence for a long moment, seasoned with a suspicious look in his eye. "No... Why would you ask that?"

I was just batting a thousand with keeping my knowledge of this bunch on the down-low. "Just felt like I stung someone. I didn't mean to... Not really... It just kind of slipped out."

He frowned and shook his head. "Don't worry about it. C'mon down and we'll show you what it's like to Change without the bars."

I stood and allowed Antonio to lead me out of the house and into the woods.


	3. Hunt

_First chapter has all my disclaimers._

_Thanks to everyone for all the reviews! This was meant to be a one-shot, but I've been working on a sequel lately (this story was finished a year ago. I'm just now putting it up on ! So, no worries that this'll be left hanging). Also, I've decided to change my upload frequency to twice a week. Huzzah, right?! :D At once a week, the story would be updating through September, and who wants to wait that long??  
_

**Hunt**

Standing out in a small clearing deep in the forest of Stonehaven, stripped down to my birthday suit, I breathed deep the scent of pine. When I said that I had no sense of smell worth mentioning, I wasn't lying; but, I was always able to smell pine. It was why I loved Christmas and had such a desperate need for a real tree growing up. I didn't want to be left out of the olfactory loop completely. Now, though, the scent was a thousand times better. I took in another deep, greedy breath and exhaled through my mouth. The air even tasted different from Southern California. It wasn't that heavy, greasy taste of smog and exhaust, but the crisp and clear taste of just plain air.

During the walk out to the woods, Antonio gave me pointers to make the Change go easier: don't force it, let it come naturally, don't fight it when it starts, and above all don't panic. I was worried the most about that last one. The only reason I had worn glasses up until I found myself in the basement cage was that the very idea of having to touch my eye to put in and remove contact lenses sent shivers of fear up and down my back. So, the thought that my bones and muscles were about to arrange themselves based on my own will sounded like the very thing that would send me into a panic.

As I stood there, staring at my hands, I began to wonder what I was supposed to expect during a Change. Was I supposed to think about changing? Antonio didn't tell me _that_ part. I started to shiver, getting cold standing out in the woods the way I was. Eyes closed, I thought about the night in the cage when Jeremy taught me to change back. I thought about my near-black fur, strong wolf legs, ears that let me pick which direction I was listened to. I was distracted, though. My hands and arms all the way up to my elbows itched like crazy. Scratching while I thought of trying to become a wolf was a pain in the ass.

Finally, I opened my eyes and glared down at the tops of my hands as if that would intimidate the late summer insects that I thought were biting me. It wasn't insects that I saw though. The skin on my hands and arms looked like something right out of The Mummy; the scene when the bad guy stole the scarab out of the wall and then the nasty little things started crawling around _under_ his skin? Yeah, it looked something like that, and felt even worse. I started panting, first with fear then through clenched teeth to keep from screaming.

Logically, I knew exactly what was happening. The Change had started, of course. Why was I worried? Werewolves did this just about every day. Somewhere nearby I knew that the rest of the Pack was doing the same thing, a normal weekly routine for each and every one of them. Yeah, and dropping into a world from the imagination of a woman living in Canada was a daily occurrence as well. Of course I fucking panicked!

I couldn't keep from screaming anymore. The pain was well beyond my threshold when I was aware of it and adrenaline was fueling it along. A wail straight from every B werewolf movie tore from my throat as I clutched at my stomach and toppled over onto the forest floor. Writhing, screaming, feeling my body become a completely different species. The more scared I was, the faster it happened and the more painful as my brain kept telling me that this shouldn't be happening. I was supposed to be a human, not a wolf. Cramps were for my monthly rag, not so that my body could accommodate what ever digestive track differences there were between me and good old _Canis Lupus_. My back muscles battled with my stomach muscles for which had the right to be contracted. Just as I started to feel the first sprouting of hair poking through, the world went black.

The next thing that I knew I was laying on my stomach, panting heavily as if I had run a mile. Yes, I was aware that I was out of shape, but all I had done was writhe on the ground. I heard a soft growl outside of the clearing and lifted my head, letting out a whimpering moan. A wolf matching my near-black color nosed his way into my little private space and cocked his head to the side, as if asking if I was all right. Judging by the wolf's scent, the wolf was Antonio. I blinked, surprised at myself for a moment that I recognized who it was based on my nose alone.

Antonio came over and nudged my shoulder, urging me to get to my feet and pushing me out of the clearing. I protested with a soft growl, but he ignored me. Once out of the clearing, he took off running, probably to join the others. I had other plans, though. I was thirsty and I could smell water nearby. I followed my nose to a pond just north of me and dipped my muzzle in, lapping up the cold water. As I was cleaning my muzzle of droplets of water, the ripples stilled and I saw my own face staring up at me from the water. I blinked and cocked my head to the side.

All of my fur was the dark brown-black that my arms were when I first was aware that I had Changed. What I hadn't noticed before was the crimson red highlights that streaked through my fur, catching the sun. Against the red undertone of my fur, my hazel eyes seemed to stand out, the green being more prominent than when I was human. I blinked slowly, as if unable to accept that my eyes, usually the color of a muddy swamp, could actually look interesting. Behind me, someone howled and I jerked up my head and pricked my ears to locate where it was. I hesitated only a moment to look at my reflection once more, head tilted to the other side this time, before I turned away from the pond and took off running toward the howl.

I was surprised by an ambush pounce from Nick when I joined the rest of the Pack. With a yelp, I went rolling until he had me pinned, panting with a big shit-eating wolf-grin on his muzzle. I growled playfully and snapped at his muzzle, a clear warning that I could bite off his tongue if I wanted to and he wasn't careful. He snorted at me and shook his head, releasing me. I rolled and got immediately to my feet, pulling one of my habitual head counts.

I already knew where Nick was, but Antonio was laying nearby panting with laughter at his son's successful pinning of the new pup. Right behind him was Clay and Elena, almost twin blond wolves with Elena's fur being a paler shade than Clay's. I blinked and sat on my haunches, unsure of what I was supposed to do next with myself. It's one thing to know how wolves acted, but a completely different thing to actually be one of them. As if a silent alarm went off, their ears perked up and noses twitched. A moment later I smelled it, too. A lone doe, close by. The pack was at it's feet and ready to start the hunt, leaving me behind to scramble awkwardly after them.

I wish I could say that once the hunt was started, my wolf instincts kicked in and I was a natural at helping the Pack bring down our prey. It was nothing like that. In fact, if I were to judge it on a scale of one to ten, ten being natural wolf, I would rank somewhere in the negative range. I was trailing the Pack through most of the period of tracking. After that, I left an opening a mile wide for the doe to get through. Luckily, though, I was with some experienced hunters. They got the doe to head back in the direction of Clay and Elena, who finished the poor beast off by jumping on her back and ripping out her throat. I remembered my manners, though. I let everyone else eat first, leaving nothing for me. I was okay with that. I was still new enough to worry about my meat being cooked.

As the Pack did some post-hunt lazing around, I paced anxiously. Looking back on it, it was pretty stupid of me to think that they would head back to Stonehaven after a Hunt. Humans did that, not wolves. My stomach was protesting my little hunger strike, making me antsy and unable to rest. After stealing a glance of the others as they dozed, I realized that I wasn't much fun when I didn't eat as a normal human. It almost made me feel worried of what I may do as a hungry wolf. So, I slipped off into the woods to find myself something to take the edge off. I told myself that I'd find some wild greens, but my nose and instincts already had me on the trail of a rabbit.

"Piss off, Nick!"

I stormed into the house, haphazardly dressed and covered in scratches with Nick behind me. No, I didn't get the fucking rabbit. Nick and Antonio had found me wedged head-first between the ground and a fallen tree that marked the entrance to it's warren, struggling to free myself. After Changing back, Nick laughed his way back to Stonehaven and was still laughing at my botched hunting attempt as I stomped my way in. Even stone-faced Clay had struggled to not laugh at my misfortune.

My feet stomped on each step as I made my way up to the guest bedroom and slammed the door shut behind me. I wasn't mad that I had failed at my first hunt, I was embarrassed. I had screwed up so badly that it was met with laughter, rather than angry words. I could have handled if the Pack had gotten mad at me for letting the doe through, but being laughed at for being outsmarted by a rabbit was just too much for my pride to handle.

I dropped to the bed, ignoring the pricks of the twigs that were tangled in my hair. Dirt smeared the white of the pillowcase and darkened the comforter on the bed as I rolled around, trying to get comfortable. I had finally settled on the odd position of my shoulders laying flat on the bed while my hips were turned as if I were on my side. I stared up at the ceiling until I lost track of time, pouting the whole time at being made fun of.

The smell of lunch meats and Antonio reached my nose before I heard the door open. I turned my head and watched as he walked in with a mountain of sandwiches piled on a plate. I waited until he was seated at the foot of the bed before I gave him the respect of sitting up to look at him. I crossed my legs and slouched forward, frowning.

"You missed the last meal," Antonio stated in a matter-of-fact tone. "Thought you might like a snack."

"Thanks," I mumbled as I reached for the top sandwich.

I was sure he missed my glare as he reached for the one right below mine, since he didn't even look at me.

"You gotta work on your teamwork," he said around a mouthful of bread and meat. As if suddenly remembering his manners, Antonio swallowed before continuing. "You weren't the only one working on bringing down the deer, so you can't act as if you are. As for rabbits, well, they're difficult for even an experienced hunter to catch."

His overly friendly grin seemed to diffuse my anger a little and I bit into my sandwich. I was still embarrassed, though, so I stared at the plate of food as I ate and refused to look at him. We continued to eat in silence until the plate was clean of anything but bread crumbs. I stared at it, not even pretending that there was something interesting there to look at. I just did not want to look at Antonio.

"So," he started hesitantly. He stopped, as if reconsidering if he really wanted to start talking again. "So, quite an interesting turn your life has taken, hasn't it?"

I couldn't stop my eyes from going to his face. I felt the tingle of adrenaline surge through me and I bit the sides of my tongue with my molars. I was sure that I saw something in his eyes change as fear washed over me and caused me to sit up straighter. "Yeah, it has..."

"I've never known 'normal', so to speak." He inspected his finger nails as if there was a pesky hangnail that needed his undivided attention right at that moment. "Nicky, either. He and I are from a long family line of werewolves."

I only stared at him as he talked, instinctively knowing that he was hunting for information.

He paused, brought his index finger to his mouth and chewed on the side of the nail. Satisfied that he conquered the invisible hangnail, his eyes met mine. "What about you, Nyx? What kind of family do you come from?"

"My dad's side is Jewish," I mumbled. His head bobbed a moment in a nod of understanding. Most people figured that out about me pretty early in meeting me, what with the frizzy dark hair, Jewish nose and all. "My mom's side is Italian... Sicilian, I think. My papa used to be a Brooklyn Dodger. Relief catcher or something like that. He was never part of the starting line-up, that's all I know for sure."

"Oh?" His head tilted, seemingly interested in my tidbit of personal trivia.

I frowned at him. There were quite a few things that I'd classify as a "pet peeve" of mine, but pretending to be interested in me when fishing for information really ranks high up there. I finally scowled and looked away from Antonio. "Look, I already told Jeremy that he wouldn't believe me if I told him, so why are you still trying?"

When he didn't answer, I looked back at him and continued. "I know the Pack as a whole doesn't trust me, and I thank you all for allowing me to be your source of post-hunt entertainment tonight. The trust issue goes both ways, though. Until I can be sure of my own safety, how I know about you—all of you—shall have to remain my secret."

"Secrets won't protect you here, Nyx." Antonio's eyes had darkened as his voice went soft. It sent a shiver through me as cold as ice.

"I... I don't plan on keeping it forever. You have no idea how much I want to say something, to just tell everyone everything. I just can't right now and still be sure that the Pack won't see me as an insane liability."

Antonio shook his head and got up from the bed, taking the plate with him. "If you know so much about us, Nyx, then you already know what we've been through." He raised an eyebrow as he looked at me. "What could possibly be more insane than what we've already seen?"

If he only knew...


	4. Nicholas

_As ever, disclaimers on the first chapter._

_Reading back on this, I realize that this is probably the weakest of my chapters. As for why? I'm not even sure anymore. I'll be the first to admit, though, that re-reading this chapter made me cringe almost as bad as looking at some of my old art from before high school.  
_

**Nicholas**

It was well past midnight before I was ready to leave the bedroom. I wasn't lying when I said I really did want the Pack to know how I knew about them. Maybe they knew some sort of trans-dimensional half-demon who could help me get back, or something, but this wasn't a fairy tale. There was serious permanent drawbacks to telling a skittish pack of werewolves that their intimate details are literary entertainment for the masses where I come from.

After Antonio had left, I had hopped into the shower to free myself of the dirt and twigs that still clung to me and my hair. As the scalding water caused the nicks and cuts on my body to sting, I focused on my almost-conversation with Antonio, wondering what I could have said or done different to make myself seem more trustworthy. I could swear up and down, until I was blue in the face, that I wasn't some mutt that will turn on them when some better offer comes along, but until I got into Clay's good graces, I was pretty much screwed.

I was sure that Clay was the key to gaining the Pack's trust. Antonio and Nick were more than willing to cautiously take me under their figurative wing; even Jeremy and Elena were willing to train me at the very least, giving me the tools I would need to make the proper decisions. Clay, though, was the hardest one to win over. More wolf than the others, he didn't have the ingrained desire to give a person the benefit of the doubt. Where normal people saw things as "innocent until proven guilty", Clay saw it as "guilty until they screw up to prove it." I was hell-bent determined to prove to Clay that I was worth the Pack's time and energy, even though it meant that I wouldn't be part of the Pack after.

Towel drying my hair, I made my way down the staircase making a mental list of things I needed. I was pretty sure becoming a werewolf didn't mean that my scalp conditions would let up. If anything, I'd get something akin to pet dander on top of it all. That meant that I needed the usual shampoos that I knew worked. My hair was too wild to let it hang loose, or just quickly tie it back like Elena does, so I would need my regular hair-ties, too. I didn't know how I planned on paying for all this, though. I didn't have any identification and it just seemed like a really bad idea to try and land a normal job anyway. It already bothered me that I was a couple hundred in debt to Jeremy for the clothes, and here I was about to ask for more in the form of toiletries and other bathroom essentials. I reassured myself that I wasn't going to be staying long, so it was okay to as for at least the bare minimum. As I passed by the study, I paused when I saw a sliver of light flickering out from under the door. I knocked softly before trying the doorknob, finding it unlocked. With a cringe at the squeak of protest that the door gave me, I leaned in and scanned the room.

The room itself was dimly lit, the main source of the light coming from the fire that was built up on the other side of the room. At the desk, a small goose-neck lamp was turned on. It's soft, warm glow was almost lost in the harsh brightness of a laptop screen that glowed right next to it. I blinked a bit, watching as Nick scowled at the screen in front of him. His fingers fairly flew over the keys as he typed, followed by rapid clicking of an external mouse.

I straightened and cleared my throat to announce my presence as I stepped into the room. It became an immediate regret when I felt the first dripping of water from my hair stream down my back and soak my shirt. It was too late to back out by that time, because Nick and paused mid-keystroke and blinked at me from across the room.

"Hey," I said softly, giving him my best awkward half-smile. "Am I interrupting anything?"

Nick frowned and shook his head. He didn't answer until he finished what he was typing and closed the laptop, sentencing us to the warm glow of the old lamp and the fire. "I probably needed the interruption. This project has me frustrated. What are you doing up?"

I shrugged a bit. "Couldn't sleep. Common problem of mine. Either can't get to sleep or I can't move once I do." I felt my lips move to their more natural position of a smirk.

He nodded, as if he completely understood the gibberish that just fell from my mouth. I chewed nervously on the inside of my lip, actually worried that I had stepped in on something that I shouldn't have. We were quiet for a few moments longer before he looked up at me and gave me an easy smile.

"Want some ice cream with me?"

I grinned at him. "As long as there's chocolate!"

"I'm tellin' you, Nick, your choice in colors is your problem here!"

I pointed at the laptop monitor, twisting my wrist so that my finger was drawing an invisible circle in the air around the screen. Our ice cream bowls were sitting, forgotten and melted, on the side of the table. While in the kitchen, Nick had told me that he started taking over the web design aspect of his father's company and he was working on his very first project. Somehow I convinced him to allow me to take a look at it, suggesting that a fresh eye may be what he needs to get the project going again.

His look of disbelief that I was interested in the website told me that he was still stuck, mentally, in the pre-computer age. That caveman time of only geeks and nerds knowing computers and that women found jocks far more attractive than a man with brains. You'd think he'd have learned watching Clay, the only man-wolf who held a PhD in Anthropology (emphasis on man-beast tribes), that brains were just as attractive these days. Uh, not that I was interested or anything.

"Reds and greens?" I wrinkled my nose at the site mock-up. "Unless this is a temporary Holiday site of a severely Christian-constipated group, you might as well kiss this client goodbye."

He growled at me, more of the human variety than wolf-like. "It's the colors I found."

"So change them." I leaned back in the chair and looked up at him. As my head bumped his chest and my line of vision showed me the underside of his chin, I realized for the first time that he was actually leaning over me.

"They don't come in--"

"_Change_ them!"

I didn't wait for him to respond. With a sigh, I did a quick scan of the application dock at the bottom of the monitor. I didn't see anything resembling Photoshop or GIMP down there, so I opened his Finder and scrolled through the applications on his MacBook in search of an art program. After three visual scans of the applications, I felt my jaw tighten with frustration. I was sure the company provided Photoshop for the rest of the web team. Why didn't he have it on this computer?

"Well, your first problem is you're using a Mac, but that's to be expected in this line of work." I shut the laptop and stood, turning to face him. "Your other one is you don't have any software to tweak images with. No Photoshop, GIMP, nothin'."

Nick frowned at his laptop, as if he could get what he needed done by intimidating it. He was quiet so long that I decided to leave him alone. Just as I grabbed the two ice cream bowls and stepped around him, he caught my arm to stop me and took the dishes from me.

"Come with me and Antonio to the office next week, then. You can show me how to use Photoshop, since you seem to know it."

I frowned a bit, not sure if I was ready to leave Stonehaven. What if it was too soon? What if I wasn't in as much control as I felt I was. I wasn't exactly known for my infinite patience before and now that temper came with fangs, fur and claws.

"Please? You'll be fine. You'll have me and Tonio there."

My mouth fell open in surprise as I looked up at him. I wasn't sure how he was able to guess at my worries. When I realized that I was catching flies, I looked away and thought about it for a moment. "If Jeremy gives his stamp of approval," I said quietly, "I'll go with you."

"Fair enough."


	5. Thanksgiving

_As always, disclaimers are on the first chapter!_

_I was asked if the character of Nyx was based on myself. This being a self-insert, Nyx is me. One of the things that I attempted to do while writing this was to not idealize myself. In coming chapters, that got to be harder because I really didn't know how I would have acted in those situations. So, I went with my best guesses.  
_

**Thanksgiving**

Even though I expected it, I couldn't help but still feel disappointed when Jeremy advised strongly against my joining Nick and Antonio on their trip back home. Well, okay, "advised strongly" is a weird combination of an understatement and an overstatement. He outright forbid it in that strange way of his that sounded like a firm request. One day I will figure that little trick out and use it to my advantage.

Nick and I kept in constant contact over the weeks that he was gone from Stonehaven. He had the IT department set me up with my own email account, so he could send me the new images. I would use Elena's computer to check the account and the websites he designed, throwing critiques and comments about them where I saw fit. We stuck mainly to emails and telephone calls when he couldn't quite phrase his question in writing.

While teaching him Photoshop was a pain in the ass with half a state separating us, Nick caught on surprisingly fast. His emails would come with fewer and fewer questions about the program and more about me. The temptation to just tell him everything was tough to resist, but I kept my answers in check. My roommates always said I had a bit of faerie in me, with my inability to outright lie.

The days turned to weeks, the weeks to months, and before I knew it Thanksgiving weekend was upon us. The morning of Thanksgiving, I was woken up by a familiar scent that I had been fading around Stonehaven and I was excited to have again. The Sorrentinos were back!

I threw the blankets off my bed and, for the first time since late October, didn't notice the cold air that filled my room. Pausing only to pull on my warm pants, an over-sized shirt, and socks, I then launched myself from my bedroom and down the stairs. My nose lead me, not surprisingly, straight to the sunroom and breakfast, where the Danvers and the Sorrentinos were sitting around the table. I was running too fast, though, and I ended up sliding right past the door and crashing into the wall.

"Ow..."

As I lay crumpled on the floor, leaning back against the wall, I heard a whoop of laughter from Antonio as he stood over me. Strong arms lifted me to my feet and softer hands made a show of dusting me off. I blinked and shook my head to clear my vision. Nick was standing in front of me, being the one who was dusting me off.

"NICK!" I launched myself at him and hugged him tightly, a little too glad to see him after all this time.

He made an "umph" sound and staggered back a step or two as I felt his arms wrap around me in a hug.

"Nick's the only one you missed?"

I lifted my head from Nick's shoulder and grinned at Antonio. "No, just missed more." I wriggled free of Nick's hug and went to Antonio to get him a much calmer greeting than I did his son.

It wasn't an hour after the initial greets that I actually found Clay in the kitchen, prepping a couple 25-pound turkeys for supper that night. Everyone else had piled into Jeremy's SUV and left to go pick up lunch.

"Going for a traditional dinner for tonight?" I grinned as I stepped all the way into the kitchen.

Clay grunted as he plunged a fist-full of stuffing into the first bird and reached for more in the bowl next to him. He raised his eyebrow at me as I reached for the second turkey and started filling it with stuffing as well.

"What?"

"Y'never cooked before."

"So?" I smirked at him. "I planned to today."

When his eyes met mine, I already knew the question he was going to ask. Instead of answering, I cleaned my hands of stuffing and turkey guts before tying the legs and tucking them in as I had seen my mom do for years. I had talked Clay into giving turkey bags a try this year, and I slipped the bird I was working on in one of them before placing it in one of the two identical baking pans. A moment later he was beside me with the other bagged turkey and putting it in the other pan.

"I know how to make a few things." I smiled up at him. "Not all of them appropriate for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but at least one of them is... Maybe two."

"And which one is that?" I saw a hint of a smirk on his lips.

I laughed, "You'll find out when we sit down to eat tonight, won't you?"

My corn chowder and cornbread was a hit. They usually were, but it always made me feel all giddy when I made something well enough that there was nothing left for the next day. After supper, the Pack—myself included—retired to the study. Clay and Elena were snuggled up on the couch, Jeremy and Antonio were relaxed in armchairs with their fingers wrapped around identical glasses of brandy, meanwhile I was laying on the floor in front of the fire with Nick, trying to stave off a combination warm fire and triptophan coma while he chattered endlessly about how well the web design was coming.

I was so tired from the day of cooking and night of eating that it took me a moment to realize when Nick had stopped talking and started using my back for a pillow. I blinked, still trying to fight off actual sleep, when I herd Jeremy and Antonio talking to each other from the chairs.

"If she's really from the city, I'm surprised that she hasn't gone a little stir crazy up here in the middle of nowhere."

Antonio's comment was answered by a soft "hmm" from Jeremy, which I imagined was accompanied by a slight nod as well.

"Jer, why don't you let her take the trip to New York City with Nicky? He's already been putting her name on the sites as well, and clients are starting to wonder who this mystery web designer is."

I lay very still in my spot, suddenly wide awake. Was Nick really putting my name to his site designs? I had stopped paying attention when our emails became more casual and conversational. I figured he was just getting crits and suggestions from me and only using what he liked. That was when I noticed even Nick was a little too still against my back.

Jeremy and Antonio were both silent for a while. I was about to try to shift so I could get a better look at them when I heard the clink of ice moving in glass and Jeremy's deep, quiet voice. "If anything goes wrong, Tonio, it's yours and Nick's responsibility to take care if it."

Nick let out a breath that I didn't realize he was holding. He shifted against me and seemed to settle down. When I moved to look at Nick over my shoulder, his eyes were closed as if he had been peacefully dozing the entire time.

I heard the smile in Antonio's voice before he actually said anything. "C'mon, Jer. What could possibly go wrong?"


	6. Business Trip

_As always, disclaimers on the first chapter._

_Hey, y'all! Thanks for all the reviews so far! With this last chapter, you guys have officially become the most talkative about my story. I really appreciate it, and love knowing that not only are people reading it but enjoying it as well! Those of you thinking and asking for more, don't worry. This story is completely written and I have every intention to make sure I get every chapter up.  
_

**Business Trip**

"Remind me again why I'm here?"

I moved stiffly around the room as I was putting my clothes away. I didn't own much beyond what I bought the first few weeks at Stonehaven. The warm, over sized sweatshirts and jeans were what I stuck to. As I stuffed these in my side of the hotel room drawers, I frowned with worry. Antonio booked a one-bedroom suite for this trip. I made sure that there were two beds, but goddamn! Why one room?

Nick chuckled. "Because this is an anal client and wants to see who all of the design team is? Did you really need to be reminded?"

"Yes," I grumbled.

He sighed. "C'mon, Nyx. It's just a sleeping place for the night."

I didn't think my back could get any stiffer. I winced. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm fine."

"Please..." I looked over at Nick just as he finished rolling his eyes. "If you were any more tense, we could use you as a splint for a really large broken limb."

With a grunt, I ducked into the bathroom to take a shower. When our plane from Syracuse was delayed because of the snow, we arrived in New York with just barely enough time to check into the hotel and quickly throw on clothing to meet our client. I insisted on a shower, though, mostly out of habit. When you go your whole life without a sense of smell, you never know when you are suffering others to your body oder.

As I stepped out of the shower, still towel drying my dripping hair and dressed only in underwear and an over sized t-shirt to stay decent, I heard Nick call from the living room.

"Change of venue, by the way. The client wanted something more upscale."

"WHAT!?" I almost dropped the towel. "I didn't bring clothes for anything more upscale! I was already pushing it with what I did bring."

"Already taken care of. Look on the bed."

Letting the towel drape over my shoulders, I went over to the bed I chose nearest the sliding glass doors. Laying neatly on the comforter was a satin, strapless dress with a full length skirt and an integrated bodice. I reached out and slid my fingers over the fabric. I picked it up and checked the size. Fourteen. I wasn't a fourteen. Yeah, no where _near_ a fourteen.

"Nick, we have a problem!"

"What?" He poked his head into the bedroom.

"Wrong size." I held the dress out to him.

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is."

He rolled his eyes. "No, it's not. Just put it on, Nyx. We're already running late!" He disappeared into the other room before I had a chance to continue the argument.

With a growl, I stormed back into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. That'll show him. I held the dress out in front of me, staring at it. I knew I dropped a few pounds over the three months that I spent at Stonehaven. My lifestyle definitely was far more active, and I was eating better foods since Clay insisted on cooking everything. I didn't even remember when the last time I had a ramen packet was. But, slimmed down enough to fit into a fourteen? Right...

I draped the dress over the back of the vanity chair and did my hair. I couldn't stand the feel of my frizzy curls on the back of my neck, so I always defaulted to a tight braid. Tonight would be no different. If I had to wear a dress, they can deal with a braid.

After my hair was done, I stared at the dress again. What was I going to do if I couldn't fit into it? Picking it up, I pulled the skirt up over my head, wriggling into the smooth fabric. At least it was comfortable, and _not_ lacy. I hated lace... With an unbridled passion... Once the skirt slid easily over my too-Jewish hips, I looked at myself in the full-length mirror. The bodice, loosely laced and untied looked just a bit big and sloppy on me. Just as a bodice should look when it was in that state of undone.

"Holy crap..." I muttered to myself a I tightened the thick ribbon that matched the color of the dress perfectly and tied the excess around my waist and behind my back. "Holy crap..."

I looked at myself in the mirror, turning slowly to see how the dress looked.

"Wow..."

Startled, I nearly tripped over my feet as I spun to face the bathroom door. Nick was smiling at me from the door way, dressed in a three-piece tuxedo, his feet clad in shiny black shoes complete with white spats. Even his hair was gelled and neatly combed back. The only messy part was he had not tied his bow tie yet.

"Uhm..." Was all I was able to manage.

He laughed softly and held out a pair of low-heeled sandals that would strap up my shin. "Almost ready to go?"

"Uhm..." I vaguely remember taking the shoes from his hand, my eyes never leaving his.

I think he smiled at me before he left the bathroom, leaving me to put on the shoes that dangled loosely from my fingers.

Sitting in the limousine that Nick had rented, I stared down at my nails. Against the newness and sophistication of the satin dress, they looked jagged and ugly and I thought about teaching myself to get out of the nasty habit of biting on them, especially when I was reading. The meeting with the client went well enough. I think we even surprised him at the fact that one of his designers was, in fact, a woman. A fact that was quickly forgotten as he leered at my chest all night. Hips and chest... The curse of all Jewish and Italian women everywhere, and I was both. Nick sat across from me, head leaning back against the high back of his seat, a satisfied smile on his lips.

"That was the best dinner meeting I had even been to. Not a question went unanswered." He grinned at me.

"Huh?" It took me a moment to register what he had said and I smirked at him. "Yeah, we did good, didn't we?"

"Better than good." His grin was still there.

I glanced out the window and noticed that we weren't driving back the way we had come. "Uh, Nick? Where are we going?"

When he didn't answer me right away, I looked at him. He was grinning at me still, looking like a kid who has a secret that he was just bursting at the seams to tell.

"Nick?"

He reached inside of his jacket, to an inside pocket, and pulled out two slips of paper. He held them out to me and waited for me to take them. When I didn't, he moved his hand as if I didn't understand that he was offering the papers to me. "Go on. Look!"

I took them from him, giving him a wary glare. When I looked down at the identical white and cream slips, the first thing that jumped out at me in big black letters was the word "Wicked." I felt my eyes widen and I turned the tickets over, expecting to see something printed on the back that indicated that they were fakes.

"No way!" I looked from the tickets to the grinning man across from me.

"You better believe it!" His grin got wider. "Elena told me that you were talking about it weeks ago, so I got them for our trip."

"But.. But you didn't know know that I'd be coming." I smirked, realizing after I had spoken that it didn't matter if I had got Jeremy's approval for this trip or not. He would have just found another date.

He shrugged and his grin became a smirk. "You're here now, aren't you?"

My smile to him was an awkward one, a little disheartened at my earlier realization. I looked down at the tickets again and furrowed my brow when I noticed the time printed on them: 8PM. I leaned forward and grabbed Nick's left arm, twisting it so I could see his wristwatch. It was a quarter to eight. "Are we going to make it?"

As I turned to look out the window at the congested, slush-covered street, he responded. "Don't worry about it, Nyx. We'll get there with enough time. These things always start late."

We made it to the theater with just barely a minute to spare. The limo driver dropped us off right in front of the doors and Nick helped me out, draping his heavy coat over my shoulders.

"Sorry I forgot to get you something warm to wear over the dress."

I shrugged to hide a shiver. "I'll survive as long as we don't linger out here."

He smirked and put his arm around me to guide me into the theater house.

"Ohmigod! That was so great! I never thought I'd see Kristin Chenoweth or Idina Menzel live, let alone together in Wicked! Soooooo much better than the Panteges. And such great seats!"

Nick kept a polite smile as I babbled on excitedly about the play the entire limo ride back to our hotel. Through out the entire three hour production, I was both glued to and on the edge of my seat, not even aware of Nick's reactions to the mock prequel to the Wizard of Oz. Having already read the novel the play was based on, and seen the production team at home, I was already able to quote the lines and sing along under my breath with the songs. I didn't notice Nick's polite quiet until the bellman was holding the door open to the limousine.

"You didn't like it, did you?" I asked as I climbed out.

He shrugged. "It was good, but theater isn't really my thing."

"Oh... Right... I forgot..."

I saw his eyebrow raise slowly. "Forgot? You couldn't possibly know. I never told you."

My heart stopped. Shit. "Uh, I mean, it should have been obvious to me, y'know? You never expressed an interest in stuff like this."

As I picked at my chewed up fingernail nervously, waiting for more questions that I was sure I wasn't ready to answer, I thought of possible half-truths that I could tell him. During the months that I had lived at Stonehaven, gotten close to Nick and the rest of the Pack, I realized that I didn't want to hold it back any longer. They needed to know, if for no other reason than to help me find out what happened and I could get home. My eyes wandered up to Nick's face, trying to gage his reaction. He was frowning, almost scowling with a small crease between his eyes. I swallowed, thinking that he was upset with my transparent answer, when I saw his nostrils flare.

I turned my head to look behind me and sniffed. In the cold air, among the scent of snow, ice, and city was another scent that I learned to recognize while at Stonehaven. Werewolf scent. None of the Pack was supposed to be in New York besides myself and Nick, and it wasn't a scent I recognized. My brain started screaming at me that I was about to have my first encounter with an actual mutt.


	7. First Blood

_As always, the disclaimers are on the first chapter!_

_I'm glad everyone's enjoying the story! I love reading all your reviews.  
_

**First Blood**

Nick sniffed the air again before he focused on me. "Stay here."

Yeah, right. Once he stepped into the hotel, my shivering ass followed him right in. I wasn't about to label myself a coward the first time I encountered a mutt. Besides, it was fucking cold out in the snow. Inside, though, I had lost Nick and the overwhelming scent of so many people and perfumes made it impossible for me to track him. I tried to get a visual on him, but it was useless. He probably already followed the scent upstairs.

Upstairs... Why would a mutt come into a busy hotel and head upstairs?

Shit! Our room was upstairs! I bolted for the stairs, stumbling in the sandals that I was wearing. I took the steps two at a time until I reached our tenth floor suite, panting a bit toward the end. Damn, I was still out of shape. I inhaled sharply when the scent of both Nick and the strange werewolf hit my nose. Tired of the heels, I snapped the straps of the sandals and kicked them off. I ran full tilt toward the door of our room.

It was open, and I grabbed the handle to keep myself from bolting right past it. I gave it a bit too hard of a shove and sent the door thudding into the wall behind it. I didn't pause to flinch, I just stepped right into the room and stopped in the middle of the living room. Panting, I inhaled great gulps of the scents around me. Nick, me, our clothes, bathroom items, air conditioning, cleaning chemicals, and werewolf.

I followed the scent of the werewolf to the bedroom. My hand trembled as I reached for the door. It was too quiet for both of them to be here. Too quiet for an intruding mutt to be in our paid for hotel room. Too quiet for a trespasser to be scuffling with the owner of the territory. I let out a startled yelp and jumped back when the door knob turned and the door swung open on it's own.

Nick was standing in the doorway, a pile of clothes in his arms and glaring at me. "I told you to wait downstairs."

"It was cold," I mumbled. I tried to look past him into the bedroom, but he blocked my view.

"Put these on." He shoved a pile of clothes into my arms and closed the bedroom door behind him.

The clothes he gave me were the pajamas I insisted on bringing with me on this trip. A pair of black exercise pants and a black racer-back tank top. I blinked down at the clothes and looked at Nick, who was already stripping out of his tux and putting on similar loose fitting clothing.

"Where are we...?"

"I already called Jeremy and Tonio and alerted them to a mutt who decided our room made a great target for an attack."

"Attack?"

"We're going to track them. I'm not going to let them get away with this shit."

"Shit?"

I felt like a moron, echoing the last word of everything he said, but I was also confused. I looked down at the clothes in my hands. Were we under direct attack? Indirect? Could I please buy a vowel??

Suddenly feeling numb, I looked at the closed bedroom door. Nick didn't close it all the way, so it creaked open with the slightest of pushes. The room was a mess, our few belongings we had brought with us thrown around the room. But there was something else there. A smell I didn't quite recognize.

I stepped further into the room and did a quick visual sweep of the mess. On the mirror above the dresser, in running red ink was the words "**We know about you**." I furrowed my brow, heart trying to beat it's way out of my chest. Was the ink turning brown? I stepped closer, involuntarily sniffing as I got closer. My mind whizzed with panic before I realized that the ink was actually drying blood. I knew the salty, metallic smell of blood by now, but I had never smelled human blood before.

Stepping around the bed, I tried to make my way closer to the mirror that the message was on. My bare foot bumped into something heavy but not immovable. Glancing down, I saw a black work boot slick with more blood, attached to a leg clad in half-shredded work pants and poking out of the meaty top white... I turned away and retched, emptying my stomach of the dinner we had.

Nick came into the bedroom and guided me away from the scene as I mumbled apologies about getting puke on the dress and on him. I didn't realize how heavily I was leaning on him until he set me down on the couch and I almost fell over.

"At least we know for sure now that you won't go cannibal on us."

My eyes felt sore as I raised them to meet Nick's. His expression was a rare one of absolute seriousness. Nick never got serious. He was the comic relief, not the hardened fighter. I weakly mumbled protests as he started to undress me and change me into the pajama clothes he pulled out for me. Once he made sure I was taken care of, he sat down next to me on the couch.

"They'll be here soon enough. Wanna play cards or somethin' while we wait?" His voice was soft with concern.

"Who?"

"Clay and Elena. What do you know how to play? Poker? Solitaire?"

I shook my head, barely able to concentrate on Nick's voice let alone a game of cards. My mind was still reeling at the idea of a message written in human blood on the mirror in the other room.

"What about TV? We can order a couple movies while we wait."

"I don't want to be here," I whispered. "I don't want to be here with _that _in the other room."

I knew that Nick's hand was rubbing my back, but my mind didn't want to tear itself away from the scene that I saw in the bedroom. Just feet away from me was the blood of someone I didn't even know decorating my mirror, which could mean the body was there as well. I don't remember having seen a body. Was there a body? My own body trembled at the idea that there might be more carnage than I had already seen.

"How long do we have to stay here?"

I felt Nick's hand move from my back and his arms wrapped around me in a comforting hug. "If they're driving, at least four hours. It'll be fine. The Pack deals with this all the time. C'mon... Let's put on a movie."

I jerked awake when the zombie chasing me down the hotel hall pounded his way into the room just after I slammed the door shut on him. Nick caught me before I fell off the couch and make sure I was awake and steady before getting up to answer the knocking at our actual hotel door.

Nick had ended up renting a movie through the hotel, but I don't even remember what it was. As I watched it with him, my mind was on what lay behind door number one until I fell asleep. That was when my mind took what I had seen and turned it into a full blown nightmare, complete with Night of the Living Dead zombies.

I wasn't even aware of Clay and Elena coming in for inspection and clean-up until they were almost done. I blinked myself back to the present when I felt Nick drop down to the couch next to me and saw Elena and Clay sitting in the chairs across from us, Elena already dialing someone on her cell phone.

"Who do you think it is?" Nick said. "Doesn't seem like something that a mutt would do, but this place reeks of one."

Clay nodded his agreement. "I wish I could say that this is Pack business, but it's not. This mutt has become someone's messenger and we're going to find out who."

He looked up at Elena as she signed off her cell phone. "Jeremy thinks we should take it to the council. There's no need for all of us to go, though. He just wants you two there."

I blinked up at Elena and frowned. "Me? He wants me to go?"

"You were here when it happened, weren't you?" The look she gave me was one I usually gave to the stupid Guests that came to my desk at work. "First hand accounts would be far better than if Clay and I went."

I blinked stupidly again at Elena. The council? I wasn't ready to pull this charade in front of other supernaturals! A more rational voice somewhere in my head reminded me that this was far bigger than my personal situation. It probably wouldn't even come up. And yet, the idea that five other supernatural races will have their eyes locked on me as I retold the story of a rogue werewolf who may be working for someone or something else did not reassure me that everything will be okay.


	8. Unveiled

_As always, disclaimers on the first chapter!_

_I must not be the only one with finals this week. It's been kinda quiet on the review area, eh? I really did expect more activity. I miss you guys! I lurves your comments and thoughts on what might or might not happen! Also, it gives me something to comment about here in this area, rather than all my endless babbling and stuff. I mean, really, who wants to read this nonsense? How about another chapter instead, eh? Enjoy, y'all!  
_

**Unveiled**

Two days later, I was still feeling like fate was pushing my hand as I sat in the passenger seat of the rented Escape and watched signs, stores, and trees zoom by. By hour three or four of our little road trip up to Vermont, Nick was still carrying a monologue of light conversation topics. I was only half listening, nodding or shaking my head at appropriate times, unless the question he asked called for something more...like a grunt.

Just as he was getting back to yes or no questions and I was about to recede into the world in my head to mull over the new developments in my situation, Nick pulled off the interstate and into a hole-in-the-wall diner. I blinked through the window at the small building.

"I'm starving, and since you didn't eat breakfast, I don't even want to try to imagine how hungry you are."

Nick's smile to me was one of his genuine smiles with an edge of concern in it. The tone of his voice, though, held something that I had never heard come from Nick. It sounded a little like actual worry. That didn't make sense to me, though. The Pack has handled far worse situations than the one we've been handed. Besides, it's not like they had an inter-dimensional visitor to deal with, right?

In that exact moment, something clicked in my brain and the words "we know about you" swam through my head over and over again. The message wasn't directed toward the Pack. It was a personal message, from someone I never even met but seemed to know about me. The thought sent shivers through my body. If I was hungry after skipping breakfast, the idea that someone was watching me and knew about me stole away what ever appetite I may have had.

Nick must have seen me shiver because he was holding out the wool lined jacket I picked up before leaving New York. "C'mon," he said softly, "let's get some food."

Instead of wearing the jacket, I draped it over my arms and hugged it close to my chest. The scent of new clothes, wool, and Nick drifted up from the article and I concentrated on that more than the dawning realization that time had run out and I needed to tell the Pack about me. I followed Nick into the diner, to a quiet corner booth where a waitress handed us menus and scurried off to another table before our butts touched the vinyl seats.

I barely had time to glance over the menu three or four times before the waitress came back and took our drink order. I asked for both a mug of hot chocolate, a coffee, and a third mug to mix them in. As Nick was giving the waitress his drink order, I turned toward the window and watched the powder snow falling from the sky. So quiet, compared to the near-tropical storms that we get during the Southern California winters. My view was soon briefly obstructed by someone walking by the window. My eyes followed the figure until he was out of my sight, but when I looked back to watch the snow again, I saw my own eyes looking back at me.

As my focus became my reflection, I studied my face. It was thinner than when I was first plopped into this world and my eyes seemed to glow. Well, the glowing may be the headlights that kept passing by, but I looked so different in the reflection of the glass than I did the last time I really looked at myself in the mirror.

During my scrutiny of myself, our drinks arrived. I was vaguely aware of Nick telling the waitress that we needed a few more minutes for our order as I turned away from the mirror and poured coffee from the pot into the empty mug. I was trying to carefully pour the hot chocolate, still lost in my own thoughts when Nick broke into them.

"Interesting way of drinking coffee."

Startled, my hand twitched and sent hot chocolate spilling to the table. I snatched up the paper napkin under my silverware and cleaned the dripping mug. After setting it aside, I placed the napkin over the small puddle my spill made and looked at Nick.

He was looking at me over the rim of his mug, smirking at my misfortune.

"It's something my old roommate showed me," I mumbled with a half-hearted smirk. "Easy way to get a good mocha in places like this. Well, relatively easy, and I question the 'good' part."

Nick put his coffee mug down and reached across the table. His hand rested over mine and gave a reassuring squeeze. Before he had a chance to speak, the waitress was back to take our orders. Nick sat back and ordered steak and eggs and I just nodded to indicate that I wanted the same.

We didn't speak again after the waitress left. It was as if the moment was ruined and we both were afraid to try and build it back up. When our food arrived, we still hadn't said anything to each other. I felt Nick watching me as he scarfed down his meal and I picked around mine. A few bites of steak and I was done. I just hadn't felt that hungry. Nick wouldn't let me get off that easily, though. He took the hash browns off my plate, but insisted that I eat the eggs and steak. I picked at a few more bites, but was too lost in thought to realize that I wasn't helping in getting myself out of the diner any faster.

After our plates were taken away, Nick insisted on dessert. I wasn't even aware that he ordered a slice of chocolate pie for me until the waitress placed the plate in front of me with a clean fork.

"Nyx, I wish you would tell me what's wrong."

Nick's voice was so soft that I looked up from my plate at him, blinking as if I had been woken from a deep sleep. "Huh?"

He smirked. "You're not eating, not talking, just sitting there all emo-like. Nothing like after the play, though I can understand why. What's on your mind?"

I licked some whipped cream off the prongs of my fork before setting it back down on the plate. My hands folded in my lap and I started picking at my nails nervously.

"Have you ever seen _The Neverending Story_?"

"Yeah. It was definitely one of those painfully obvious 80's movies," Nick laughed. "What does that have to do with anything?"

I fidgeted a bit, still picking at my fingernail as I started to quote from one of the final scenes of the movie: "'He has suffered with you. He went through everything you went through. And now, he has come here with you. He's very close. Listening to every word that we say.'"

I looked up from my hands to Nick, who was staring at me with confusion in his eyes, chewing on a bite of his pie. I looked back at my fingernail and continued quoting, hoping that eventually it may click. "'Just as he is sharing all your adventures, others are sharing his. They were with him when he hid from the boys in the bookstore. They were with him when he took the book with the Auryn symbol on the cover, in which he's reading his own story right now.'"

Again I looked up at Nick, my heart thudding in my chest with nervousness. I was worried that he would not understand or just not believe, worried that he would decide I'm absolutely insane and recommend that the Pack put me down immediately, but, most of all, I was afraid that he would leave me there alone in that diner.

None of my worries had come true just yet. Nick was still staring blankly at me, not having made the connection. I suppose movie versus book would confuse some people. I took a deep breath and tried a more direct approach.

"I'm from... The night of... When Clay and Elena..." I swallowed, unable to get the words out. Afraid that my choice of explanation would damn me and eventually end me. "I'm not supposed to be here!"

Nick sat up straighter, blinking at my sudden outburst. I caught myself glancing over his shoulder to see if anyone had noticed, but the diner was conveniently empty of other patrons. Looking back at Nick, I bit the side of my tongue to distract myself from the first prickle of tears threatening to come.

"What do you mean?" Nick's brow furrowed as his mouth turned down in a confused frown. "Jeremy thought it best if you and I both--"

I shook my head. "Not here, here," I pointed to the table we were sitting at. "I mean here, _HEEEEEERE_!" I pointed all around me, the universal sign of all encompassing, right? Wrong...

"Nyx, I don't understand what you're saying."

I made a whimpering sound of frustration. "I mean I went to sleep in front of my computer in California and I woke up in a cage in Stonehaven! Where I come from, there is no interracial council, there are no supernatural races, there's barely any magicks left worth mentioning!"

His expression changed from one of confusion to something more guarded. I reached across the table to place my hands over his, as he did for me earlier.

"Nick, where I come from there literally is no such thing as werewolves. The reason I know so much about you and the others is because you're a story. A series of novels written by a woman named Kelley Armstrong who decided after a crappy episode of X-Files that she could do better. It's how I was able to readily accept being bitten, how I knew Jeremy's name, how I knew about you and Antonio being father and son; it's how I know about Malcolm..." I paused to lick my lips, feeling my throat tighten and my voice become a whisper as I tried to get everything I had to say out before my tears made their grand entrance. "...it's how I know that your grandfather, Dominic, was the last Alpha and died of a stroke without a named successor."

My eyes locked on his, I felt Nick pull his hands away from under mine. No one in the pack talked about the last Alpha, especially not to me. His eyes had darkened and he seemed to be holding back growling at me. "I need to make a call," he said softly.

I watched him as he walked past me and stepped outside. For a few moments I watched him through the window as he pulled out his cell phone and called someone. I assumed it was Jeremy. When I felt sure that he wasn't going to abandon me, or maybe it was that I was too numb to worry about it, I looked down at my melting slice of pie.

Chocolate... I loved chocolate. Nick was the only one who didn't bother asking me what flavor I wanted when a dessert run was made. He would always bring me back something chocolate. Suddenly chocolate was making my stomach knot and turn, so I shoved the plate aside and waited for Nick to hopefully come back.


	9. Betrayer

_As always, disclaimers on the first chapter!_

_Hello, new readers! I see there a few new people from completely new countries, even! I gotta say, that's made of awesome! First off... Griffin? I'm sorry. This is only a small pouch. But, I promise, there will be more Shifted-crack come Thursday! I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry! If it helps and pleases ye any, I've been working on getting back on track with the long over-due sequel._

_In other news, with classes out for the summer and my new-found "Huzzah! The student loan peoples aren't forcing me to take summer classes!" time has left me WIDE open to be a Beta. So, if you're looking for a Beta make sure to read my Beta Profile **thoroughly**. Feel free to PM me with questions and the like. Fair warning, I'll probably read a sample of writing before deciding to take on the task. I have a red pen, and I'm not afraid to use it!  
_

**Betrayer**

I was sitting with my head in my hands and my eyes closed when Nick finally came back inside. I had managed to keep myself from crying, but that was anything but talent. Growing up, I used to get yelled at when I mourned any of my pet's deaths, so I learned to just not cry where others could see me. I lifted my head when I heard the rustle of bills being dropped to the table and dared to look up at Nick. He kept his eyes averted, even going so far as to completely turn his head from me.

"Jeremy says he'll call the delegates of the council and tell them we've been postponed. We're to go to the cottage that we rented and wait for him there."

As he turned away to head back out to the Escape, I realized how cold his voice sounded. He was distancing himself from me as actively as he tried to befriend me those first few weeks. I wanted to tell myself that I fucked up royal, but I couldn't tell where exactly I fucked up. Was it in not telling the Pack sooner? Or was it in telling them at all?

I stood up and followed Nick out to the Escape, climbing into the passenger seat and watching him as he climbed in. For some reason it hurt me deeper that he wouldn't look me in the eyes than anything else I could remember. I wanted him to talk to me, to be mad that I held back this information for so long. I wanted something besides his silence.

Silence was all I got. It was another hour drive to the cottage filled with nothing but absolute silence and my mind whizzing with thoughts of what I could do, what I should have done, or even what I should be doing other than sitting here quietly. I thought back to the unintentional jab that I made at him my first dinner with the whole Pack. I hurt him then, too, but he didn't know me well enough to respond to it. Now I seemed to have actively injured him, and he was upset about it. Or was he? Did I really feel that I made friends with him? With any of the Pack?

In the five hours it took Jeremy to get to the cottage, Nick didn't speak once to me; not a glance or a sound. It was like I didn't exist anymore. Every time I looked up from the page I was trying to read, Nick was staring out the window at the snow. Something in his eyes told me he wasn't looking at what was outside. Five hours, one of driving and four of waiting, Nick and I did nothing but stare and memorize one single page in a novel. Just when I was sure I couldn't take it anymore, headlights came up the dark driveway. I tossed my book aside and sat up in the chair as Nick got up and ran out to greet Jeremy.

I watched the two men through the bay window seat, standing out in the snow as they talked like it was a mild spring afternoon out there. As I stared, my mind began to wander again about what would happen to me now that my "secret" was out. I knew more about this small group than they were comfortable letting anyone know, and I got it all from the fiction section of my local bookstore. I snapped back when I saw Jeremy head toward the front door, leaving Nick in the snow with his back to the window...and me. I didn't tear my gaze from the window until I heard the front door shut quietly and Jeremy's soft footfalls stop behind me.

"Nyx, you need to tell us—me—everything."

I looked up at Jeremy, into his black, unreadable eyes and with a sigh I told him my story from the beginning.

The next morning woke me up with bright rays of sunlight stabbing my eyes through my eyelids. I groaned and moved a bit, trying to turn away from the vindictive sun only to fall gracelessly from the window seat with a loud thud that jarred me all the way awake. Sitting up and rubbing my head, I tried to remember what happened after I told Jeremy my story the night before.

Oh, that's right... Nick came in somewhere in the middle of my story and passed right by us and into the bedroom, not even stopping for a cursory eavesdropping. Just walked right by as if he was the only one in the cottage. I think I stopped my story to stare at the closed door of the bedroom, because I remembered Jeremy urging me to continue. After I explained to Jeremy, he called Nick outside and I took back up my perch in the bay window seat, watching them until I fell asleep.

Jeremy's reaction to my story was totally and completely Jeremy. His eyes never left mine and his facial expression never changed. He took everything in calmly and the only reason I knew that he was processing it and sorting it out in his head was the very reason why I was there telling him this story. When he and Nick went back outside, I tried to listen in on their conversation but they stepped too far away from the cottage for me to hear them. I ended up falling asleep while waiting for their return.

After I stood up and stretched the knots and kinks out of my neck and back, I went to the bedroom door and lay my hand on the knob. There was a time, only a few short days ago, when walking in on Nick was something that was okay to do. Everything was different, now. Not just because Jeremy was here, but because I had betrayed Nick's trust. I didn't tell him soon enough. I led him on, in a way, and I felt guilty about it.

I decided against opening the bedroom door and settled for making breakfast. Not exactly my forte, since I didn't much enjoy breakfast-type foods. The groceries Jeremy brought were fairly simple: eggs, bread, butter, milk, juice... By the time I finished the bacon and was working on the french toast, I heard the bedroom door open and looked up to see Jeremy sit down at the breakfast bar.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

I frowned down at the frying pan and stabbed at the bread to flip it over. "Wonderfully," I grumbled. "Almost as comfortable as the floor of the cage."

"Do you really think you deserve more respect than you're getting?"

I shoveled a pile of bacon and four slices of french toast onto a plate and turned around, dropping it in front of Jeremy unceremoniously. "Fuck you. I told you in the beginning that you wouldn't believe me if I told you. I was looking to preserve my damn life."

Jeremy ate in silence as I fixed an identical plate of food and dropped it just as hard on the counter next to him. As if on cue, Nick came out of the bedroom and I stalked out of the kitchen. It would be another day of ruined appetite for me. I grabbed my clothes from my suitcase on the couch and went into the bathroom to shower and change.

When I emerged forty minutes later, breakfast was eaten and cleaned up, except for one plate of food with another acting as a cover sitting on the breakfast bar. Nick was also still sitting at the bar, but Jeremy was no where to be seen. They saved me breakfast, so I decided I should eat it. Leaning against the bar on the opposite side of Nick, I picked up a slice of bacon and stuffed it in my mouth, chewed and swallowed.

I studied Nick for a while. For the first time ever, he looked disheveled. His hair was a mess and under his eyes were so dark I'm sure Jack Sparrow would be asking him where he got his Kohl from. Even his tailor fitted clothes seemed to just hang off him in a messy pile of fabric.

"Sleep well?" I mumbled around another mouthful of bacon.

Nick lifted his eyes from the counter and seemed startled to see me there. He blinked a few times, bringing himself back to the present and nodded. "Yeah..."

"That was a real shit-head thing to do." I stuffed another piece of bacon in my mouth, this time wrapped in powder sugar covered french toast.

"Yeah, well... After thinking it over for the night, I kinda understand why you handled it the way you—"

I swallowed my food and smirked at him. "Not me, dork. You. Leaving me there on the bench all night? Very slick, Rico Suave."

Again he blinked at me, surprised. "I, uh... Well, you would have done the same!"

I shook my head and gave him what I hoped was my most reassuring smile, but there was too much sadness in me to feel it to be very convincing. "Well, duh. You're a boy. Boys are icky."

He just smirked at me and watched as I finished breakfast. Jeremy appeared in the kitchen as I was cleaning the plates that my food was on.

"Good, you ate. Are you two almost ready to go?"

I blinked at Jeremy as I dried my hands. "Go? We're still taking this to the council?"

"We need to take it to the council more now than ever." He reached for the keys to his Explorer and headed for the door.

I looked at Nick who had gotten up to help me put the dishes away as I cleaned. Jeremy was right. Even if we decided to forget about the bloody mirror message, the council needed to know about me. I was getting good at telling my story, my voice shaking less and less with each retelling, but this next and last time I will be going in cold. I didn't know the other council members as well as I did the Pack, and I chose to not get myself started on how very little I knew about the other races that sat on the council. As I followed Jeremy out to the car, I hoped that I wouldn't make some supernatural faux pas.


	10. Council

_As always, disclaimers are on the first chapter!_

_I'm sure you've all been waiting for it. It's the Interracial Council!! Also, this is the halfway point. Only 10 more chapters after this one.  
_

**Council**

Nick rapped on the door of the meeting hall and stepped back to stand beside Jeremy. I was standing behind the both of them, feeling rather like a little sister hiding behind her big brothers. The door opened and a teen aged girl a few inches shorter than me peered up at Jeremy and Nick, a huge grin on her face. Fairly short black hair that has the look of trying to be grown out, large, bright blue eyes, and tall for a fourteen or fifteen year old. Savannah Levine.

"Jeremy! Nick! You're finally here! Wow, you look like shit."

The last comment was directed at Nick. After seeing him that morning, I had to agree even though he managed to make himself more presentable since earlier at the breakfast. As Savannah ushered us in, she turned to say something to Jeremy and stopped when she saw me. "Is that her? She's not much, is she?"

I snorted and rolled my eyes, spending a few moments asking myself why I had ever wanted to be a high school level teacher. Instead of responding to Savannah, I took a moment to see who else showed up to the meeting. I bit my lip when I noticed that I seemed to have brought out the whole of the Council.

Paige Winterbourne sat next to Adam Vasic, which didn't surprise me. They had grown up together, and were chatting just like the old friends that they were. Further around the circular table was auburn haired and green-eyed Cassandra and a tall man I didn't recognize right away. I searched my memory of the stories I had read and placed him as Aaron Darnell. The vampire was probably the only one in the room who would willingly sit anywhere near the apathetic high-class vampiress.

There was an empty chair next to Aaron. I didn't realize that Jeremy had stepped away from Nick and I until he stepped up behind it and pulled it out to take a seat. After he was comfortable, he leaned over and whispered something to a sultry red-head in the next chair over. Now that was another face I was sure to recognize. Jaime Vegas: spiritualist superstar by day, actual necromancer all the time. I smirked when I saw her cheeks color when Jeremy leaned in to talk to her.

Next to Jaime was another empty chair. I knew there was someone missing. Witch, half-demon, vampire, vampire, werewolf, necromancer...who was I forgetting? I glanced up to the snack table behind the empty chair and saw a man staring at me. No, not staring at me. Staring _through_ me!

I bit down harder on my lip and inched closer to Nick. It was comforting that even though I was sure he was still mad at me, he didn't move away. The moments ticked by and I was frozen by the stare of the man as I searched my memory like an overloaded computer. Slow, too slow. Who the hell was he?

Kenneth Okalik, shaman. The name and race finally came to me just as quickly as I had lost it in my nervousness. I watched his eyes dart back and forth, as if he was looking at me, then someone else, then me again. I wondered if he was talking to his ayami, his spirit guide.

I knew the least about Kenneth and Taira, his ayami. He was nothing but a silent presence in the novels and a rather unsatisfactory story in one of the online collections that Kelley released. Because of that, he was the one in the room I feared the most. Vampires, Exustio half-demon, necromancer... I could handle all that. But a shaman? That had me quivering inside.

Paige sat up and called the delegates to order at the table. Nick grabbed a couple extra chairs and placed them between Jeremy and Aaron. I took the one next to Jeremy. I didn't care how much of a martyr Aaron was, he was still a vampire. Nick sat down next to me, his arm going around the back of my chair. He stopped himself, and I saw a faint frown at the corners of his mouth as his hand moved from behind me and into his lap. I promised myself then that I'd do everything I could to smooth things over with Nick.

As Jeremy told the council members about the message on the mirror, I worried over my earlier revelation. Nick and I stayed silent unless we were directly asked a question regarding the story. Once he had finished, I waited for Jeremy to start the part that was specifically about me. When he didn't, I watched him sit back down in his chair. The members of the council sat in silence. Each one knew that something was missing in the story. The one who broke the silence was the last one I expected to speak.

"I suppose the first question is, do you want to go back?"

Everyone turned to Kenneth, amazed that he had spoken when not spoken to. He was staring at me through half-closed eyes. I shivered, resisting the urge to lean back into Nick for protection. As if able to read my mind, I felt Nick put his hand on my shoulder.

"I... I, uh..." I stammered. I closed my eyes and thought about his question. I had been so focused on making sure I wasn't killed by the Pack that I didn't think about if going home was an option. Did I want to go back to mundania where I wasn't anything more than just me?

"Go back?" Paige reluctantly shifted her gaze from Kenneth to me. "What does he mean go back?"

"Uhm, well..."

And for the third time in two days, I told my story.

"I think we should take a brief recess," Kenneth said into the awkward silence as he pushed his chair back from the table. "I'm sure some of us would like to approach the matter on full stomachs."

No one protested the idea, and the table quickly disbanded. As I got up to follow Jeremy, Nick, and Jaime, I got the feeling of being watched.

"Not you. You, stay a moment."

I looked over my shoulder at Kenneth then over to Nick who stopped when I did. Nick wasn't looking at me, though. He was looking over my head at Kenneth.

"What do you need her for?"

"I want to talk to her, in private. That's all." Kenneth lowered his gaze from Nick to me.

I heard Nick start to growl behind me, but checked himself. "Fine. Nyx, I'm letting Jer know and I'll wait for you outside." He glared at Kenneth again over my head before turning away and going to find Jeremy.

Kenneth waited while I watched Nick leave, willing him in my mind to not leave me alone with the shaman. Finally I took a deep breath and turned to face Kenneth. He was watching me again, looking through me and silent. I knew he was talking to Taira, but I didn't know what about. "What do you wa—need? I didn't eat breakfast, and a cranky werewolf is a dangerous werewolf."

He hesitated a moment longer. "That message was for you, wasn't it?"

"It's possible." I frowned at Kenneth. "What do you know that you're not letting on?"

He smiled at me. "I can't really say for sure just yet, but you need to really think on whether or not you want to stay here."

After another moment of studying me, he left the meeting hall. I stood in place for a while longer, wondering what the shaman knew or, more likely, what Taira was telling him. Nick poked his head in when I didn't come out right away.

"Hey... Everyone's ready to go. We're waiting on you."

"I'm coming..." Lost in my own mind, I made my way on auto-pilot toward the hall exit. "Do you think anyone would mind if I skipped part deux of this meeting?"

Nick shrugged and held the door open for me. "Don't really know. Why don't we talk to Jeremy about it over lunch?"


	11. Q & A

_As always, disclaimers on the first chapter!_

_Griffin! I haven't heard from you about Chapter 10! Are you okay? You survived the weekend, right? LoL ;) Your DTs didn't kill you, I hope._

_ANYHOW! Yes, Kenneth! Kenneth is my beautifully clean-slated plot device. He's like water. I can do almost whatever I want with him and it'll work because there's so very little about him in Armstrong's writing! I hope that doesn't make me too horrible. Some characters are just fun to play with and mold into something I can use. I think that's why I enjoy the side-characters more than the main ones. Yeah, Nick is kinda included in that statement, but not so much as say Kenneth or even Cassandra. I just love getting my hands dirty and playing around with what I can do to and with characters :D  
_

**Q&A**

I couldn't talk my way out of the second half of the meeting, but I at least negotiated my way down to when the council was finished questioning me, I could leave. It seemed like a good idea at the time, I just didn't realize how many inquiries they would have. Only a handful of questions in, I couldn't tell one voice from another. The only two who didn't seem to be questioning me was Cassandra and Kenneth.

"Where are you from?"

"Los Angeles, but I moved down to Santa Ana recently to be closer to work. I'm sure that's not what you meant, though. If you want my total half-baked theory, it's a dimension shift." I shifted my gaze to silent Kenneth. "Something like Astral Projecting, maybe?"

"How'd you get to be here specifically?"

I looked at Paige, unsure if it was her or someone else who asked the question. "I don't know. The last thing I remember is passing out in front of my computer after a long work week. When I woke up, I wasn't in the same state, let alone the same house."

"Do you remember anything strange happening to you before you woke up?"

"Yeah, all the time," I laughed. "Anything that would forewarn me that I'd experience something as big as this, though? No, nothing bigger than the usual shadows and blips on the ghost-dar that I normally experience."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jeremy's hand move. It drew my attention to Jaime, who was stiff backed and frowning a bit. I winced inwardly, knowing that my blips were nothing compared to her personal experiences.

"So, you've had experience with some sort of dimension shift before?"

My eyes shifted to the table and I studied the wood grain as I tried to formulate the answer to that question. Yes, I did, but nothing like this. An actual, full on dimensional shift? Never. It was always on a smaller scale, like looking through a window or a scrim at a world beyond mine.

"Yes, and no," I started slowly. "It was never anything this interactive. Shapes, movement, forms overlaying and passing through what was actually there in front of me..." I shook my head, out of words to describe what I was used to seeing.

"You've been here almost four months. What about your family?"

I didn't even need to guess who spoke up with that question. My eyes met Kenneth's and I scowled at him. "Of course there are people I'd like to get in touch with back home. But there's obviously no way for _me_ to get in touch with them, is there?"

Kenneth gave me an overly friendly smile and Jeremy excused me from the meeting hall.

Nick rode with me in a cab back to the cottage so that Jeremy could keep the Explorer. I had the driver drop us off at the front of the property, deciding to hoof it back to the cottage itself to let off steam. The silence between myself and Nick was just as uncomfortable as before. I kept stealing glances at him, hoping to screw up the courage to say something to him.

"Thanks..." I mumbled.

He raised an eyebrow as he looked at me. "For what?"

"You were ready to defend me when Kenneth pulled me aside earlier." I smiled a bit as I shoved my hands in my jeans pockets. "It felt kinda good. Nice, really. Thank you."

"That's what we do for Pack members."

"Oh..." I felt my heart sink a little. Just business. It took me a moment longer to realize what else that sentence implied. Was I Pack now? I suppose it was a little stupid to think that I would have gotten a formal invite of some sort, paperwork to sign maybe, Welcome to the Team! celebration.

We walked in silence a little longer. I was able see our cottage in the distance before Nick spoke again.

"If that message on the mirror was directed at you—"

"I'd be surprised if it wasn't," I said quickly, cutting him off with my eagerness that I was able to talk to him again.

"Yeah, but doesn't that mean it's...safer for you to just go back? No battles, no bloodshed, no worries."

"Maybe." I stopped outside the front door of our cottage and turned around to face Nick. "Most likely. But, at the same time, what if there's a reason for me to be here?"

"What if they can follow you? The Pack can't protect you if you go..."

I didn't know what to say to that. Something in his tone made me wonder if he really was thinking about the Pack's limitations in protecting it's newest member, or if it was some other more personal restriction he was thinking of.

Nick stared at a spot over my head for a long time, his eyes distant and unfocused. Curious, I looked behind me to see if he was looking at something on the door that I hadn't noticed while walking up, adrenaline making my tongue tingle with worry that there was another bloody message there.

"Do you want to go back?"

I blinked and looked up at Nick again. His voice was so soft that I had to concentrate to make sure I had heard him right. For the second time that day, I carefully worded my answer. "There are people I miss there. People who are missing me and are probably more than a little worried."

"But do you _want_ to go back?" His eyes met mine and held them. I couldn't look away, and I didn't want to.

"Honest answer?" I said softly.

Nick nodded.

"In an ideal world, I'd be able to have them here with me. There's nothing but a handful of people that holds me to that world."

I saw something change in his eyes and he seemed to relax a bit, as if he had breathed a mental sigh of relief. "And what about this world?" He smirked. "Again, honest answer."

I grinned and rolled my eyes, throwing my hands up in mock exasperation. "Ach! Horrible! All this fresh air and beautiful landscaping to roam about? Goddess, help me! How did I manage to survive this long? And don't get me started on the company I have to keep!"

My eyes met his a moment before he launched at me, fingers going straight to my ribs to tickle me mercilessly. I let out the most girly shriek that has ever come from my lips, more from the surprise of the attack than the tickling itself. My back thumped against the door and Nick blocked my side escape routes by placing his hands on the door on either side of my head. I was panting a bit, still quietly giggling at the sudden tickle attack.

Nick's grin was almost predatory as his eyes met mine. I held my breath as he slowly leaned forward...

...and let out a low growl of frustration when his cell phone started ringing in his pocket. With a sigh he stood up, releasing me, and checked the number on the screen before flipping it open.

"Yeah?...No, we decided to take a walk...Right here...Here or there?...Okay. See you in a bit, Jer."

Nick closed his cell phone after he signed off with Jeremy. He looked at me and smirked, this time the expression was one of irritation. "Jeremy says that Kenneth has asked for another private meeting with you."

He laughed a bit when I let out a groan.

"Yeah, I figured that's what you would say." His eyes suddenly lit up and he grinned at me. "How about a deal? Don't kill Kenneth during this meeting, and tonight we'll go out and find something to hunt. You get killing blow."

I shook my head. "I just want to run tonight. If we come across something worth biting into, we'll go for it. I haven't had much success in small game, anyway. I need the practice." I grinned up at him half-heartedly.

My grin collapsed in on itself when Nick turned his back on me to head to the Escape parked in the driveway. I didn't want to see Kenneth again, let alone be trapped solo in a room with him. The shaman knew something, though; more than he was willing to admit in front of the council. I needed to know what it was.


	12. Second Meeting

_As always, disclaimers on the first chapter!_

_Me? A tease?? Why, yes...yes, I am ^..^ I try to not go overboard, though. At least, not too much....hopefully...  
_

**Second Meeting**

I stood outside Kenneth's motel room door, staring at the 28 that glared at me as if it dared me to enter. Wrinkling my nose, I looked at Nick. He nodded toward the door, smirking a bit. He wasn't about to let me off the hook. With a sigh, I lifted my hand and rapped my knuckles lightly on the door. I paused only a moment before I turned on my heel.

"Guess he's asleep! Why don't we..."

My hasty retreat was cut off by the opening of the door.

"You're here. Good." He stepped back into the motel room, leaving the door open for me.

I looked back at Nick, the brief thought of bolting flitted through my mind, before I sucked it up and stepped into the room, closing the door behind me. Instinctively, my fingers brushed over the dead bolt to make sure it didn't lock into place. No, I'm not claustrophobic, but I wasn't about to take any chances in someone else's motel room. My eyes darted around the room, looking for anything that might set off my fight or flight reaction. "Jeremy said that you have a message for me..."

"Yes, I do. Come sit down. Would you like anything to drink?"

Kenneth was already sitting on his bed, holding his hand out to indicate the chair across from him. Reluctantly, I sat. Just as he was about to open his mouth to continue, I jumped up from my chair, spun it around and straddled it instead, leaning forward on the back of the chair and resting my chin on the top. He raised an eyebrow at me, then shook his head.

"She told me you liked root beer, but didn't say what kind." He stood up and went over the fridge and reached inside. I tried to pretend like I wasn't watching, too cool to be worried about the likes of him. He pulled out a brown can and handed it to me. "I hate the stuff, so I hope generic is good enough."

I eyed the can, inspecting it for anything fishy like pin holes or cracked at the opening. "Who told you that?"

"Lona." He smirked a bit as I fumbled the can, dropping it to the floor. "I believe she said she's your sister?"

Licking my suddenly dry lips, I looked Kenneth right in the eye. "So, I was right. You can contact them." I leaned forward, tipping the chair onto it's two back legs. "What did she say?"

"She said she was doing fine. That a lot of people miss you."

Something in his tone made me stop and blink. I stared at him a moment and narrowed my eyes a bit. "What else did she say?"

"Something about cracks going wild. That your brother won't come by the house anymore." He shrugged at that.

Kenneth didn't know what that meant, but I did. The cracks in the ground of the house I lived in with Lona and Tyger were active with supernatural energy. Nothing compared to the place that I landed myself in, but very powerful for where I came from. It was always warm there, like it was...

Like it was a portal to somewhere!

Before I had been transported here, I was over at the old place checking out the cracks. Lona had called me during my shift and asked me to stop by to check it out, maybe reinforce the barriers we had put up. I had stumbled, tripping on what we jokingly named the roaming lump of air into the dead center of one of the cracks. I had felt off since then. I went home and...well, the rest is history, I suppose.

"So, I ask you again, Nyx, do you want to go back?"

I looked up from my shaking hands to Kenneth and frowned. "I can't answer that right now..."

My legs were numb as I stood up, not even aware that I was moving. Dazed, I left Kenneth behind in his hotel room and walked right past Nick. He caught up to me easily and nudged me with his elbow.

"Hey... What happened in there?"

I shook my head. "I need to run, Nick. Let's get back to the cottage, please."

He stopped walking beside me and the only tip off I had was that my arm was suddenly cold. I kept walking, right past Jeremy and the two trucks, past Jaime, through the parking lot and on the road back to the cottage. My mind was active with my new choices that I didn't even notice that I blew right by them.

I could find a way back and help with the cracks. Kenneth specifically did not say that both Lona and Tyger were okay. Just that Lona was. I knew Lona well enough that this was a hidden jab to get me to go in the direction she wanted me to. I felt a twinge of resentment and anger in my gut that she would do that, but shook it off quickly. I needed to make an informed decision, with a clear mind.

Did I want to go back? No, I didn't. I was happy here, part of this world and this pack. I had told Nick earlier that in an ideal world, everyone that I missed would be here with me. That was exactly how I wanted it. It was selfish, but that didn't change the fact that it was how I wanted it to be. Was I wrong in wanting it that way? That was where my judgment went cloudy. I didn't know where I was supposed to be. I just knew where I wanted to be.


	13. Run

_As always, disclaimers are on the first chapter!_

_Griffin: The "cracks" are actually an inside reference to something that my roomies and I talk about here. As my brother says, "Just like in **Excel Saga**, it ends up not really mattering!" This story initially wasn't supposed to hit (that, in itself, is a long story... Blargh...) ever. There is a secret "bonus" chapter written by one of said roomies, TrinityLast (of Buffy and Angel fanfiction fame such as **Bound **and **Temple of the Slayer** ::ends her shameless plug::), but I didn't include it here **because** it was written by not-me._

_winchester-grl44: Thank you! I'm glad you like how I portrayed Kenneth. He was really tough to write and I actually had to read the short story that Kelley wrote of his about five or six times before I felt comfortable in writing him. As for your other pondering, well... ::smirks:: I shall choose to not answer that right now. ::noms on the Kudos in the mean time, since that's her favorite brand of granola bar:: ^..^_

_In other news, I'm struggling getting the sequel, **Displaced**, up and running again. I stalled some time back and I haven't had the kicking in the pants that I had while writing **Shifted** since I quit Disney and started working from home. I did get the spark of an idea for an original fiction that I might start writing tonight, though, if anyone goes to FictionPress for origional works. More likely it'll end up on my website then there, though. Who knows? Like I said earlier, **Shifted** wasn't supposed to be on , either._

_Okay, I'll stop rambling and let y'all read the next chapter. I know that's what you're really here for!  
_

**Run**

I wanted to be running, far away from human cities, human thinking, human problems, human anything. I had to keep my control, though, so I managed to walk all the way back to the cottage before allowing myself to even think about Changing. Nick met me on the main street to the complex, the expression on his face that was a mixture of worry and relief. I didn't realize he was there until I almost ran into him.

"How...?"

"How did we beat you back without you noticing? We had the cars, remember?" Nick smirked at me. "Though I doubt you would have even noticed a charging herd until well after it trampled you. Think you're still up for a run?"

I nodded.

"Good." He turned away and headed into the forest.

My Changes were getting quicker and less painful, but on that particular day I reveled in the pain. It bit back the surreal feeling I'd been left with after my meeting with Kenneth. The thing was, being here had never felt surreal until home had touched me from the distance. I stood up and shook my dark fur, ready to run. Sniffing the air, I followed my nose to Nick's spot and poked my muzzle under the brush to let him know I was ready.

I heard him grumble through the bushes. Just as I pricked my ears in worry, there was a sudden flash of fur and Nick was on top of me, pinning me to the ground. He panted, tongue hanging out, laughing at having surprised me. I nipped his paw and grunted. It wasn't hard to surprise me that day; there was no reason for him to gloat like that.

He stepped back and nudged me with his nose until I stood up. His tail was wagging slowly, and I could practically smell his excitement for the run. I didn't know it was contagious until I felt the breeze from my wagging tail ruffling the fur on my legs. With a yip, I danced to the side and bowed down, sticking my tail and hindquarters in the air and wiggling a bit.

Nick lunged playfully at me, changing direction at the last second, but not before I flinched and braced myself for another pounce. He circled me instead, rubbing against me as he did until he was able to nuzzle my shoulder. After a quick nip, he took off running, disappearing into the darkness of the forest.

I took off after him. Despite it being night, I was able to see perfectly over the snow-covered ground of the forest. As we plowed through into clearings, the bright gibbous moon illuminated the snow beneath our paws. I laid my ears back, making myself more streamline and minimizing the sound of the air as I cut my way through it. With each clouded puff of breath, my worries fell one more step behind me. My human mind knew that I couldn't run from my troubles, but my wolf brain reveled in the release. It wasn't like I was running _from_ them, anyway. I was just finding a temporary escape. Some people find it in writing, some find it in a bottle, I found mine in a thirty-five mile per hour burst of speed while covered in thick brown fur.

I had lost sight of Nick a ways back, having taken a different fork in the path than he did. I could still smell him upwind, though, running with me just one path removed. I'm sure if I had thought about it, I would've seen the irony of that: same route, different path. So much like how my life was going now. Secure in the illusion that all was right with the world for the moment, I allowed my mind to become unfocused again. This time, I just enjoyed the feel of the wind through my fur and the bite of the cold on my paw pads.

Growing up, when I couldn't find something that was right in front of me, my grandma would always say "If it was a snake, it'd have jumped up and bit you in the nose!" I never quite grew out of that bad habit of missing the trees for the forest...or was that the forest for the trees? Either way, I missed stuff by concentrating on other things.

I was listening to the fading echo of my yelp before I realized what had happened. It was dark and suddenly the snow came standard with dead and dried sticks, leaves, and pine needles. I shook them out of my fur, but stumbled back into them with a yip. The pain shooting up my leg was familiar. I had twisted something in my fall. Typical... Trust the heroine to fall into a hole and twist her ankle. I had fallen into something worse than a trap. I had fallen into a cliche.

The hole wasn't even wide enough to pace in. As I was pawing at the wall with my hurt leg, a fresh shower of pine needles came down on my head. I growled and squinted up at the opening. No one was up there, though. Nick wasn't going to notice my absence, so I threw back my head and let out a long, low howl. After waiting for the echo to clear, I listened for Nick's return howl. Nothing. So, I howled again.

"Och! Ruddy beast! Stop with the noise now, would ye?"

I squinted up through the hole as another pile of pine needles rained down on me. Trying to get closer to the top, I put my forepaws on the wall-o-dirt surrounding me and whined when my left paw reminded me that it was wounded. Stretched this way, I didn't even hit the halfway point of what I had fallen into. My only guess was that my hard head was what stopped me from being killed.

The silhouette of a man crouched over the lip of the opening appeared. When he shifted to get better footing, the last bit of the surrounding debris fell into the hole. After snorting the dirt out of my nose, I sniffed to try to catch his scent, but there was nothing. His scent wasn't even on the bits of the above forest that decided it would make a good crown for the queen of the bear traps. All I smelled was forest.

He disappeared over the edge and I heard the dim strike of flint and a quick flare of dull orange. A primal panic shot through me as I wondered if flaming debris will soon be my new bed down in the hole. Instead, he reappeared holding up a lantern that illuminated his face and chest.

The man was wide shouldered with a strong neck and jawline. His hair was a light brown, with red highlights reflecting the light from his lantern. His eyes were unusual, though. A deep forest green that seemed to glow with a light all their own. Catching myself staring, I blinked and shook myself. When I looked up at him again, the illusion was gone. He was just a man, holding a lantern...and laughing at me.

"Got yerself in a bit of a bind, didn' ya, lassy?"

I pulled back my lips, baring my teeth at him and growling a warning.

"Now, now. Don't ye go threatenin' me with that pretty grin o' yers, lass, or I'll be takin' me message and me help with me. Ye don't want th' big bad tae win, do ye?" I could see the lantern light glinting off his teeth as he grinned at me.

Like a good puppy I sat and waited to hear his explanation. He checked over his shoulder, as if checking to see that he wasn't being overheard before he looked down at me again. Once more, his eyes were glowing.

"I know ye know who I am, Nyx. Think real hard on it." He sighed when he realized that I wasn't going to recognize him or anything he was talking about. "Och! Gods damned bloody mortals..."

A thick vine started to snake down into the pit and into the dirt wall, creating steps as it weaved in and out all the way to the ground. The man's voice took on a bit more urgency. "Ye need to get yerself free, lass. The Fates 'ave got big plans for ye and the Cabals want to recruit ye. If they can't, ye'll get ta meet the Fates and hear their disappointment in person. Now get yer furry brown arse outta there and seek out Eve Levine. Now!"

He disappeared from the lip of the hole again and I was alone in the dark once more. Staring at the root-like branch, I wondered how he expected me to get out. With paws, it had the same likelihood of me climbing my way out without it. It took my slow brain to realize that he expected me to Change and climb out. Sure, no problem.

As I Changed, a burning in my wrist started and grew as my body shifted. I gritted my teeth, trying to work through it until I couldn't handle it anymore and let out a scream. I was human again, though, bent over and panting as I felt cold sweat cut trails down my neck and back. I shivered once and jumped, grabbing the thick branch as I did. With a yelp of pain, I let go and fell back. Even after the burning reminder during my change, I had forgotten about my sprained wrist.

With a frustrated growl, I held my wounded arm to my chest and tried to climb the root ladder again. Feeling much like a vertical inchworm, I made my way slowly up; bring up my feet a step, then lunge to grab the next wrung with my good hand. When I reached the top, panting, I clung to the forest floor, still half in the hole. Next thing I knew there was a burning in my wrist again as I was being hauled out of the hole by my bad arm. Caught off guard, I screamed in pain like the little girl that I was. Tears of pain blurred my vision, so I couldn't see who my handler was, but I could hear him chuckling at my misfortune.

"Bloody hell, Ryans, can't ye see that she's cold?"

I swallowed back my whimper as recognition of the voice and the spark of betrayal grew in my gut. I glared at my "rescuer" as he wrapped a thin blanket around me. He met my eyes, a bright green with a determined look in them. As he stepped back, I noticed that he moved awkwardly as if he wasn't used to his own two feet then turned his head to glare at the man who held me up a moment before. Instinctively, my eyes darted around to see the other men who surrounded us. Cabal sorcerers...

"Knock it the fuck off, Ryans. The lass is freezing as it is, and you go and try to give her hypothermia?"

It took me a moment to realize what was going on. Ryans was a Tempestras half-demon and was getting it to snow heavier right where I was standing. I turned and glared at the arrogant son-of-a-bitch and growled. He only smirked more. I never could pull off being intimidating, even against immature assholes.

"The puppy has teeth, doesn't she, Burnett?"

I turned to look at Burnett, who was glaring over my head at Ryans. Silence hung between them, and I was in the middle of it. I caught Burnett's fingers twitching. Some half-demons have a tell, especially telekinetic half-demons, and I wondered what Burnett was about to do. When nothing happened, and his twitching became less subtle, I realized he was waving me away. Telling me to get the fuck out. Okay, who was I to argue?

As I tried to slip away, a gust of wind knocked me off my feet. "You aren't going anywhere, beast!"

"Who are you calling a 'beast', asshole?" I snarled at Ryans from my backside; inwardly I flinched. I really needed to learn to pick and choose when my temper flared up.

Sudden hail started to pelt me from above, and I curled up under the blanket for protection. Then chaos broke. From the forest, I heard the crashing of something plowing through underbrush and the snarl of a wolf. Nick! Thank the goddess, Nick was here! Nick was here... Fuck! Nick's fighting two guys alone, with who knows how many hidden!

I threw the blanket off and ignored the hail raining down on me. I was barely able to get up when someone grabbed my arm. I tried to pull away, but he pulled me close.

"Get the bloody hell out of here, lass." Burnett hissed in my ear. "I cannae hold this cur back any longer and he's just getting stronger as he feeds off the chaos." A grunt as he shoved me toward the forest as he called after me. "If Eve gives ye any problems, tell 'er that Esus sent ye!"

Esus? Esus! I remembered him now. Celtic deity of the forest. That was how he got the branch to create a step-ladder. As I ran through the forest, dry branches whipping and cutting into me as I made my own path, I tried to remember more about him. I apparently couldn't run and think at the same time. It wasn't long before I felt Nick's hot breath on my heels. He passed me and helped by cutting my path for me. Neither of us stopped until we reached the cottage and tumbled into the front door.


	14. The Why

_As always, disclaimers on the first chapter!_

_Sorry for this being posted over 2 hours late. had a bug up it's butt, apparently, and didn't like anything that I tried to upload. ::shifty eyes:: Maybe someone's trying to suppress **Shifted**! Viva la resistance!!!_

_::passes out after a full night of fighting with a website::  
_

**The Why**

"...and then he told me again to find Eve, and let her know that Esus sent me if she gives me any issues."

I flinched as Jeremy tied off the cloth he wrapped around my wrist as a brace. I'd be fine before dawn, but Jeremy had insisted on a full inspection and bandaging. Paige was also at the cottage with us. Since she had an experience with Esus before, I insisted that she be there. Jaime was already at the cottage, and I didn't want to think about why...or what was going on while Nick and I were gone.

Jaime nervously picked at her perfectly manicured nail. "Eve's in one of her away periods. I haven't been able to contact her for a couple months."

I opened my mouth to say that if that was the case, I knew exactly where she was, but snapped it shut. It was almost like something told me it was better that no one else knew that Eve was, surprisingly, an angel. She couldn't tell anyone, but I knew...because of the very reason that I was in this damn madhouse of a world.

"There has to be a way to get her. Kristof, maybe?" I said.

Jaime blinked at me.

"Well, why not? If a go-between is the quickest way to her, why can't we?"

"What else did Esus say?" Paige interrupted. "Anything?"

I shook my head. "No. Other than that, he was pretty useless, especially since his temporary vassal of choice was an Expico half-demon. You know, for a god, you'd think he'd be able to have a better grip on something like that."

Jeremy's lips twitched, the closest I had ever gotten to getting him to smile.

"Well, if it's Eve you need, then it's Eve we'll get." Jaime reached in her purse and pulled something out, but it was hidden in the palm of her hand. She closed her eyes and we all sat in silence, watching her. After a few moments, she opened one eye and glanced at all of us. "Uh... I can't really do this with this big of an audience..."

"We'll step outside, then!" Nick suddenly jumped up beside me and grabbed my left hand. When I let out a small yelp and winced, he mumbled an apology, switched which hand he was holding onto and pulled me to my feet, toward the kitchen and out the back door.

Once we were outside, he turned around and pulled me into a hug tight enough that I coughed and gasped for breath.

"Bloody...'ell...!" I croaked.

Nick didn't respond. He just stood there, holding me in that crushing embrace and he didn't let go until I actually began to think that maybe he was going to suffocate me. When he dropped me, I gripped his arms to keep from falling over until I had my footing back.

"What..." I gasped, "...what was that for?"

He avoided my eyes, but held onto my hands. "I... When I didn't hear you behind me... I panicked, I guess." His voice lowered to a quiet mumble, "I was...worried about you..."

I smirked and reached up to ruffle his neatly combed hair, something I knew irritated the crap out of him. When I didn't see his usual glare of irritation, my smirk turned into a frown and I moved so that I was right in the path of his averted gaze.

"Hey... I'm okay, aren't I? I only sprained my wrist. Technically I didn't even get caught."

"I should've..." He suddenly growled with his frustration. "Clay would never have let something like this happen to Elena!"

I furrowed my brow, confused by his sudden outburst. "You're not Clay; and I'm not Elena. Why are you comparing us to them?"

Nick avoided my gaze this time by fixing his eyes on something over my head and behind me. I stood my ground and just stared at him, waiting for an answer. The longer I waited, the tighter the corners of his mouth got. He finally turned away with a grumbled "never mind."

My hands balled into fists and I stomped my foot in frustration, which only made me feel juvenile and even more angry. "You're fucking impossible!" I snarled. "One minute you want to tell me every secret you have, and then the next you want me to drag it all out of you. I'm not your father! I'm not going to baby you, Nicholas!"

As I turned to storm away, I felt Nick grab my arm and pull me toward him. I struggled half-heartedly, not really in the mood to try and make nice with him. Before I knew it, he had me in another hug and his lips were pressed to mine in a kiss almost as crushing as his earlier hug. My eyes went wide with surprise one moment and the next I was relaxing against him as his kiss became softer and more passionate.

Alarms went off in my head, reminding me that this was the Pack member who had at least three girlfriends at any given time. I ignored them. Nick's attentions felt so good that I didn't care at that moment if all he was doing was finding a way to temporarily cure an itch while he was away from home.

When he released me from the kiss, I blinked and licked my lips nervously. "I... Uh... I mean..."

I felt him chuckle and brush his lips over mine once more. "Just don't scare me like that again," he whispered. "Promise?"

My lips turned up in a small smile as I nodded.

When Nick and I returned to the cottage, I was nearly steamrollered by an over-excited Jaime Vegas.

"Finally! There you guys are! You two are always disappearing at the worst times. I've got her! She's here!"

I blinked dumbly at Jaime then looked over her shoulder at Jeremy and Paige still sitting in the living room. It took me a moment to remember who "she" was and why Jaime was so excited that contact was made. Eve. I was supposed to be looking for Eve. I felt my face warm with embarrassment as I pushed past Jaime and into the living room.

Just as I was about to sit in the armchair that I had claimed as mine, I noticed someone was already sitting there. "Oh, uh... Sorry..." I muttered as I stood back up and looked around for another comfortable spot.

As I searched, my eyes passed over Paige first, who was looking me strangely and then Jeremy who had his own version of the same look in his eyes. I looked over at Nick, who did very well at not hiding his look, and Jaime seemed more surprised than anything else.

"What?"

I looked behind me at the chair I was about to sit in. Still sitting there was a black-haired woman, waggling her fingers at me with an almost too-friendly smile on her lips. "Hi! The ghost hunt is over."

"Guh--?"

In the time it took me to mutter that half of a word, my brain made the connection. Eve Levine was sitting in my chair. I'd love to say that I was polite, reached out to shake her ethereal hand with a nice self-introduction, and was as witty as I am with the living. Yeah, that's what I'd love to say I did, but I didn't. I screamed and jumped the end table to hide my face against Nick's chest. Very brave of me, right?

Behind me, I heard Eve laughing. After a few moments, I managed to pull myself back together and turn around to see Jaime glowering at Eve who was still laughing at my little spaztic outburst. I shivered again, my brain screaming at me that this was more than captured images of ghosts. This was a ghost, sitting right in front of me. No, wait. She wasn't a ghost. She was...

"Stop laughing at me," I grumbled. Every living eye turned toward me as I spoke with what was only supposed to be visible to one person. "Stop laughing, or I start singing bad country music...about angels!"

I felt my nose wrinkle at the pathetic threat that I made, but it got Eve to stop laughing.

"I'm not surprised that you know, kitten."

"And I'm not surprised that you're here."

"Wait! Wait..." Jaime stepped between myself and Eve as she looked at me. "You can hear and see her?"

I nodded. "Up until you blocked my view of her, yeah. Thanks for that, by the way."

"I can still hear you!"

The strangest thing about contact with the dead is that one can't really hear anything they do. I didn't hear Eve get up out of my chair, nor did I hear her feet on the carpet as she closed the distance between us. I heard Jaime step back though, back toward Jeremy and Paige. I watched as she whispered an explanation to them, that I was able to see and hear Eve myself. I turned my attention back to the woman in front of me and waited for my explanation.

"Look, I'll just cut to the chase," Eve began.

"Well, that's nice of you," I smirked, tilting my head to the side.

She glowered at me and continued. "The Fates need you because there's been a break in. Something that they can't quite get a grip on because it's not from around here."

"Soooooo... Get someone from that area of the world. What does that have to do with me?"

Eve crossed her arms and glared at me, all but freezing me in place. "That's why you're here. You _are_ from that area. Not only are you from that area, but you created the thing that got in."

I blinked. "I... Who... WHAT!?"

Eve's gaze softened and she grinned. "Got your attention now, don't I?"

I felt my jaw tighten as I waited for her to continue.

"I don't know how the Creator thing works, and quite how it's linked to the Fates," Eve waved her hand dismissively, as if it was an unimportant detail, "but, who or what ever the Creator is knows every Tom, Dick, and Harriet who might have some sort of power. The Fates are supposed to be the gate keepers and the moderators of this dimension's supernaturals. You've got something similar in yours. There's one for every world created."

I looked at her like she had gone off the deep end before I leaned over to look at Jaime, the index finger of my right hand aimed at Eve. "Do you believe this cock-and-bull story? I think she's been on one too many 'adventures'!"

Jaime shook her head. "I'm not hearing a thing Eve is saying. It's all censored from my ears."

I frowned and glared at Eve again. "Great. I'm the only person subject to listening to a crazy person. Tell me again why you were made a—"

"DON'T!" Eve interrupted, holding up a hand. "Don't even finish that sentence. I know you know that they're not allowed to know."

I shook my head, my brain spinning from the number of knows in her last statement. "Uh, right... Okay, let's say this mythos is the one I gotta live by, since I'm here and all. You still haven't explained what got loose and why I'm the one who's gotta catch it."

"Like I said earlier, you created the thing that got loose here. There's nothing like it that even the Fates have seen, and with that many sets of eyes, I'm sure they've seen a lot."

"Don't the Fates only share one eyeball?" She ignored my jab and just stared at me, point blank, so I asked the next obvious question with a roll of my eyes. "What did I supposedly create that got loose here?"

"The Leviathan."

Any sarcasm that I may have had ready to fire at Eve froze in my throat. I even got that horrible tingling feeling in my tongue and fingers when I get a sudden adrenaline rush. "The... You're fuckin' shittin' me!"

"Seems I've really got your attention now, huh?"

It took some fighting, but Eve finally got the approval from the big wigs to talk freely among the other "mortals" of our group. Paige, grudgingly, had left the cottage to attend to other Council business. I knew she wanted to know more, so I promised to fill her in and keep her in mind in case we needed help geared toward her talents.

By the time Paige left, Eve returned and Jaime had already prepared what she needed to allow Eve to speak through her. Eve returned to my chair, across from Jaime and Jeremy who were on the couch. During the wait, Nick had sat down in another armchair and I perched on the arm part, his arm wrapped casually around my waist with his hand resting on my thigh.

It was strange hearing Eve telling the others her half of the information (sans the part about the Creator and the Fates), while Jaime echoed it with a slight delay. It kind of reminded me of when my mom got her first cell phone. She tested it by calling the house from right next to the phone and had me pick up. I'd hear her voice next to me and then a moment later in my other ear over the phone. But this wasn't a telephone system, and what I kept thinking was: _But, they're not in harmony..._

My turn to talk finally arrived in the form of a simple question from Jeremy: "What exactly is this Leviathan?"

I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck nervously. "I was writing a fanfiction where the original character was...possessed, for lack of a better term...by a creature called the Leviathan. I based it not on the most common knowledge of what the Leviathan is, but on a mash-up of what a friend of mine said the Hebrew version was and, uhm...." I paused and glanced at Eve, "...and the Nix."

"Shit!" Eve exclaimed as she sat straight up in her chair.

"Yeah..." I flinched a bit. "Though, in my defense, you can't really fault me for this! People write creatures all the time, and they just usually stay in their own world." I spread my arms wide to indicate the people sitting around me. "Let me point out Exhibit A!"

"Yeah, okay, but how do we stop it?" Jamie asked.

"I...don't know..." I slumped a bit in my seat, leaning against Nick's shoulder as I felt his arm tighten a bit around me.

Eve raised a surprised eyebrow in my direction. "What do you mean you don't know? It's your creation!"

I shrugged. "_And_!? It was a story that I never finished! How was I to know that it would come back to bite me in the ass?"

The room got unnaturally silent after I said that. I could feel my self-doubts prodding my brain for a reason why they were silent, and the biggest one was that they were trying to find a way to place the blame on me. Eve was right, though. It was my creation, and it had to have had a weakness. I just couldn't remember what, or was it that I didn't think one up? No, if it was developed enough to shove it's way into another dimension, then I must have given it a weakness. All I had to do now was remember it and put that into action.


	15. Battle

_As always, disclaimers on the first chapter!_

_Sorry! Sorry! This one being late was all me! My brother got me caught up in an online game. For shame, right?_

_I finished **Living with the Dead** tonight. Sadly, it didn't get my creative juices going enough to continue on my sequel. I may need a sounding board. I'm working on it, though! Maybe **Frostbitten** will help me. It needs to be released sooner!! ::clears her throat:: Anyway, let me just say in advance "I'm sorry." The only pre-explanation you get is that I've been compared to Joss Whedon in doing terrible things to characters and tormenting readers. This is one of my more milder ones.  
_

**Battle**

The last time I went a full twenty-four hours without sleep, it was the day of and after my Senior prom. The difference between then and now was that instead of overbearing parents and my first day of training at my first job, I was the "parent" and I had to deal with the problems my "child" was causing.

The fire was dying and I had just noticed the slice of dawn's light on the wall as Jeremy woke up and came out of his bedroom. "Did you sleep out here?"

"No," I mumbled.

"Want some breakfast?"

I nodded. It took me a moment to realize that Jeremy was about to make an attempt at breakfast before I leaped out my chair and dashed across the living room floor to stop him. "Woah, woah! I'm already up against certain death here, you don't need to bring it on faster!"

Jeremy smiled slightly as he put the pan back under the stove. "I was wondering how long it would take you. Now, why didn't you sleep, hmm? You know you need the rest."

"I know."

I took the pan Jeremy put away and set to work making the only hot breakfast type food I knew how to make: very cheesy omlettes. When I heard Nick's bedroom door open, I figured it was the smell of the food cooking that woke him up. I looked over my shoulder to give Nick my best "Problems? What problems?" grin, but it was quickly aborted.

Nick was leaning heavily against the door frame, his thumb and forefinger pinching the bridge of his nose. When he finally moved, he groaned and swayed a bit. While I sat up all night and quietly thought about the problems I had brought here, he looked like a demon rose in the middle of the night and dragged Nick by his toes through every circle of hell and back.

I quickly slid the second omlette into a clean plate and brought it over to Nick. He smiled at me as I handed the plate off to him, and I felt my heart flutter in my chest and the warmth of a blush rise to my cheeks. I bit my lip and turned away to go back to making breakfast. My hands were shaking as I pulled out a second pan for bacon and got started on cooking that.

"Didn't sleep well last night, either?" Jeremy asked Nick softly.

There was a slight pause. "That's the understatement of the day. I thought I was asleep, but..." Another short silence.

I lifted the plate full of bacon and turned around to push some onto each of their plates. "But it feels like you spent the whole night running a marathon while studying for an advanced Calculus exam?"

Nick nodded at me as he stuffed a couple slices of bacon in his mouth. Jeremy swallowed his bite of omlette, giving me a questioning look.

"I'm probably wrong, but it just sounds a lot like what the Leviathan does." I paused as I waited for Nick to stop his surprise choking on his bacon. "Essentially, it's a chaos demon. No body, thrives off of discord and hate and..." I stopped and swallowed as I remember the story I was writing when I created my beast.

Jeremy slid a sideways glance toward Nick and I could almost read in his look what he was thinking. Jeremy had always had a psychic connection with his pack mates, and now he was wondering if something was there that was beyond his realm of sensing. It was a connection that even Jeremy himself couldn't explain, but he always knew when there was something wrong with those in his family. Spurred by jealousy, I began to wonder if he had that toward me, then I wondered if he ever would, since I wasn't from his world.

I set my plate down on the counter across from Nick and pulled my stool around to sit on. "You look like you need more rest than you're letting on. How about we go for a bit of a run today? Just enough to push you back into the area of about to pass out, and we'll take a nap."

Nick shook his head sharply, much like a child who won't go back to sleep after a particularly nasty nightmare.

"Even if I lay down with you?" I raised an eyebrow and smirked.

He stared at me a moment then finally a ghost of his usual easy smile appeared on his lips. "_Only_ if you lay down with me after."

"Drive a hard bargain, don't ya?"

I waited for Nick in the snow, my muzzle resting on my paws. He was taking too long in his Change and worry gnawed at my gut because of it. He was always done before me, waiting to pounce on me as soon as I came out of my hiding place. I was about to consider finding him a nice, fat winter hare when he finally emerged. He just quietly shouldered aside the branches and stepped out of the clearing. I jumped to my paws and went over to him, pressing my forehead against his flank.

After a moment, I felt him move away from me and rest his muzzle on my back, grumbling as he rubbed his chin repeatedly both with and against the direction of my fur. I leaned down and nipped at his foreleg playfully before dancing away, letting my tail wag a bit to entice him into the chase. When he didn't come after me, I bowed down, making it clear that I wanted him to come run with me, to run after me. All it took was him to feign an attempt to start chasing me and I was off in a flash, a blur of dark brown in an already dimly lit forest.

Nick was right behind me, running as fast as his exhausted body would allow him to. I left him a twisted trail to follow, weaving in and out, over and under, and even going so far as to run straight through the stream near the property. Paws soaked to the bone, I stopped and looked behind me, actually surprised to not see Nick there until I realized that I hadn't heard him behind me in quite some time. I threw back my head and howled, calling to where ever he was. After my howl faded, I heard a distant howl back, not far from where I had stopped hearing Nick behind me. I waited a while longer, listening for the soft crunch of paws on ice and snow.

A mass of fur exploded from the forest behind me and shoved me to the ground, growling as teeth locked onto the scruff of my neck. I kicked and whined, struggling against my attacker, but Nick held me firmly into place. I dropped to the ground, which surprised him enough to let go of my scruff.

I rolled away from him, a time or two extra to throw off his timing, before I jumped to my paws quickly and sprang onto his back. His legs buckled under him and I grabbed a muzzle full of the fur that protected his neck before he could roll farther.

Growling, I shook him a bit before I shifted to get a better grip. He was expecting me to loosen my grip, and he was not in the least disappointed. He scrambled out from under me and pounced on my back, knocking me to the ground and effectively pinning me.

As his muzzle rested on the top of my head, I heard a growl vibrate in his chest and I knew he was chuckling at me. I flicked my tail, making sure to hit him with it. It only spurred him to bite at my ear, mock growling into it. When Nick slid off my back, releasing my poor ear, I lifted my head and glared at him.

He didn't notice. His muzzle went right for using my paws as a pillow, his nose burying into my chest fur as he made a contented sound. I rolled my eyes and lay my head over his, joining him in sleep as the sun gently warmed our resting place.

I knew I was twitching in my sleep as my brain tried to make sense of the colors and blurred images that I dreamed about. I heard a whimpering moan in the distance and I ran to investigate. I was still in wolf form, feeling the wind through my coarse fur as I pushed myself faster and faster, far beyond my limits in a race to get to the source of the sound.

As I got closer, I heard a chuckle. It wasn't warm and friendly like Nick's or Jeremy's. It was far more devious, evil and cold. The sound of the laugh froze my legs into place, and I trembled all over with genuine fear so thick that I could smell it on myself. The whimpering grew louder, and in it I could hear someone calling my name. My legs wouldn't work. I couldn't find the source of the call.

Suddenly I was human again, doubled over in pain. I felt the first prickle of tears coming to my eyes as I hit my knees, and I was gasping as if unable to breath. The chuckle had grown louder, becoming a full on laugh and drowning out the whimpering call. Something within me screamed that I needed to get out of this nightmare, but all I could bring myself to do was try to fight back against my invisible opponent. I let out a scream of pain while my ears heard a lupine yelp, but none of that mattered after I realized I was unable to make any other sounds.

My eyes flew open...

Nick had his jaws firmly clamped around my throat, snarling and trying to toss me from side to side. I panicked and tried to pull away, struggling to get both free of Nick's jaws and my next lungful of oxygen. His teeth bit down harder, and I managed a strangled sound. I brought my back legs up under him and gave a hard kick, making sure to move my paws so that the kick also had the bite of my blunt nails in it.

It shocked Nick enough to release me, and I coughed and gasped for breath. Despite the feeling of dizziness, I tried to stand up, but Nick had recovered and barreled into me again, this time knocking me to my side and biting down into the soft flesh of my belly. My scream of pain came out as another loud, high pitched yelp that echoed through the forest. I snarled and tried to curl up to bite at Nick's muzzle so that he would release me. When that didn't work, I tried to kick him away again. Only one connected, and as he flew off of me, he tore away a chunk of fur and flesh with him.

I scrambled to my feet and faced off with Nick, who still had the bloody brown chunk of fur between his jaws. He growled at me and lowered his head between his shoulder blades, his ears flat against his skull and his eyes wide with unseeing frenzy. As he jumped to pounce on me again, I scrambled under him and turned around, not letting my back face him for any length of time. Nick landed right where I was standing and kicked snow over the dark red puddle I had left in my wake.

Distracted by the amount of my own blood I had seen soaking the snow, I can't say that it was surprising that I was overtaken by another tackle of Nick's. This time, I snapped to right away and gave him another hard kick to the gut. He wouldn't let go of me this time, and shook me like a rag doll. My memories went back to when my dad brought home two Alaskan Malamutes and when they tore the crap out of my little American Eskimo.

While memories of my dogs and their fights flashed through my mind, my eyes didn't register the blur of black that came out of the forest and knocked Nick off of me. I lay dazed in the snow while I watched Nick and the other wolf duke it out, far better than I could ever defend myself as a wolf. Blinking stupidly, I watched the black wolf overpower and eventually knock out Nick with the same wind-pipe crushing maneuver that Nick had used on me earlier.

I struggled to get to my feet again, my mind racing. Nick was down, could even be dead! By a normal wolf, no doubt. Or maybe it was a mutt! A mutt had taken down Nick, and I had just laid there and watched it happen. What if he came after me next?

During my struggle, the black wolf turned around and looked at me, eyes full of concern. Black eyes. Familiar eyes. Jeremy's eyes...

That was the last thing I remembered before the world went dark.


	16. Fated

_As always, disclaimers on the first chapter!_

_Looooooook! I'm on time this time!! Not much in the way of commentary this time. Wasn't much in the way of comments to make commentary on! Thank you, though, Kaethe Vala, for yours! I'm glad you're enjoying the story._

_Griffin, I forgot to message you... Sorry... I gave **Full Moon Rising** two fair shots, and couldn't get into it. I'll try again later, though, when I don't have reading pressures on me. I'm smack in the middle of a reading challenge and I'm not where I should be. I will give it another shot later, though!  
_

**Fated**

I woke up the next morning in a soft, comfortable, downy bed. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and I felt like I had gone twelve rounds in a no-holds street brawl. I forced myself to sit up, despite the burning pain in my stomach where Nick had all but disemboweled me. My hand gingerly explored my throat as I searched for any signs of an accidental tracheotomy. I was still taking inventory of the extent of my injuries when Jeremy appeared in the door.

"How did you find us?" I asked him, my voice hoarse from a bruised throat.

"I thought you knew everything about us," he responded, flashing me the barest of smiles. He stepped into the room and handed me a mug, the contents the coloring of chicken broth but with the smell of flowers.

"Har har," I rasped just before I brought the mug to my lips and drank.

The hot liquid seemed to sooth my bruised throat almost immediately. I don't think there was ever a time before that moment that I was glad to know an herbalist. As I finished my tea, I felt Jeremy watching me, waiting for me to be done before he asked the big question on his mind.

"What happened out there, Nyx? I've had to sedate Nick to keep him from coming in here and finishing what he started last night."

I felt my fingers go numb and only quick reflexes stopped me from dropping the mug in my hand. "I... Jeremy, I think he's infested."

"Infested?"

"Infested, possessed, taken over, in the thrall of... Take your pick of the term, but I think the Leviathan's got him."

Jeremy's eyes darkened and I knew I had told him exactly what he didn't want to hear. "How do we fix this?"

"I don't know..." I moaned. "The Leviathan is a creature of the mind. He makes a nest in the fear part of his victim's mentality and goes to town. It's like a drive-in movie for him that doesn't stop."

As Jeremy checked the clock on the end table, I suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion sweep over me and an overwhelming urge to lay back down. I began to wonder if he had slipped me a sedative as well, just in case I was just as bonkers as Nick was at the moment.

"Gets some rest, Nyx," I heard Jeremy say from somewhere in the room.

"I dreamed of him last night..."

Jeremy looked up from his novel and looked at me. I was still in bed by the next morning, mostly at Jeremy's insistence. Some nonsense about blood-loss and keeping warm. I watched him as he set the novel aside and leaned forward to listen to me.

"Who? Nick?"

I smirked. "Yeah, I wish. _Him_. The Leviathan."

Jeremy watched me in that way where he doesn't need to ask for someone to continue.

"He was laughing at me. Kept taunting me with his absolute confidence that I could do nothing to help Nick. And the crying... I heard a puppy cry, but I couldn't find it." I rubbed my eye with the heel of my hand. "I'd come close to finding it, but just as I pulled the sheet, something grabbed me and that was when I woke up."

The sound of an awkward thud in the doorway distracted both Jeremy and myself to look up at the figure standing there. Nick was dressed in nothing but sweat pants. His hair, a stringy and greasy mess, looked exactly like he hadn't let it see anything but a pillow in two days. Under different circumstances, I would have commented on his new laid-back greaser look.

He leaned heavily against the door frame, as if he had too much to drink. Nick lifted his head enough to glare at me, a glint in his eyes that I did not recognize as the Nick I had come to know that sent a shiver down my spine. Jeremy stood up and went over to Nick, blocking his view of me and mine of his.

Jeremy murmured something quietly to him, and Nick responded too loudly.

"No! No more sedatives, Jer. Unlike Clay... I don't need that sh-sh-shit."

I watched quietly as Nick shouldered his way past Jeremy to see me again. For a moment, Nick was there. I could see it in his brown eyes, the confusion of what was going on in his own mind. But the vision was only for a moment. The hard, angry glare was back with a predator grin on his lips.

"This is your fault, you know." His voice had softened to talk to me, dangerous as the wolf that I knew he could be and as silky as the clothes he liked to wear. "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be in this mess, would I? Go home, bitch."

I held my breath, trying to not to let the Leviathan's words affect me. I couldn't help but feel their sting. They may have been the words of the demon I created, but they came from Nick's lips with Nick's voice.

"Go home!" he shouted, almost lunging at me. "GO HOME! The Pack doesn't want you!"

I was sure that Nick was going to attack me again until I saw his eyes roll back and he fall forward to the ground. The spell broken, I tore my eyes from Nick's body and looked at Jeremy who was holding an empty syringe in his hand. I watched him as he picked up Nick and dragged him back into his room. The sad look in the Pack Alpha's eyes was all the confirmation I needed that the accusations were true.

"I'm sorry, Jeremy," I whispered when he returned to my bedside. "I'm sorry for everything."

Jeremy nodded solemnly as he picked up the mugs and plates and carried them out to the kitchen. That was when I decided to take a more active role in solving this problem.

There was a time, many moons and many lives ago, that I tried my hand at lucid dreaming. I was met with some success, but I had decided that the prep time and meditation before bed was best spent doing more important things. Y'know, like staying up until midnight for the Neopets Advent Calendar, or solving some of the evil puzzles on that damnable site. Like I said, more important stuff.

Still, I remembered what it took to put one's mind in a state to actually do some lucid dreaming. Jeremy already provided me with the herbs to relax the body, it was just up to me to get my mind to shut down. I laid back in bed and closed my eyes, beginning the meditations that I learned so long ago. It wasn't long before I fell asleep.

Peacoat? Why the hell was I wearing my Disneyland peacoat? I shucked the garment off and let it drop to the floor. The dark color of the coat was a drastic contrast to the marble of the room. The walls were shaped in a perfect sphere so that it seemed to go on forever while trapping you inside at the same time. The thin black veins in the marble were the only thing beside my coat that broke up the monotony of the bright white.

"It's about time that you arrived."

The voice was young; very young. I turned around, nearly tripping on the coat behind me, to face the child just barely able to reach the spinning wheel she was threading. I blinked, then blinked again. No longer a child, there was a woman around middle-age with the beginnings of wrinkles around her eyes and mouth. Another blink and it was a crone, stooped and trimming the thread that the middle-aged woman was spinning.

"We thought you would never show," said the crone. "I suppose better late than never."

I stiffened my back at the insult. "I imagine that you're the Fates."

"You'd imagine correctly," said the middle sister.

"You already know why you're here," said the youngest sister.

My head was already starting to hurt at the constant flipping of forms that the Fates did to speak. With each change of voice, a change of body was just as instantaneous.

I looked away from the Fates, but the shockingly white marble of the room was just as painful to look at. "If I know why I'm here, and you know why I'm here, and we all know why everyone's where they are, why are we wasting time and not getting on with solving said issue?"

As I turned to walk away from the Fates, I heard the voice of the middle sister call out to me.

"Nyx, you must be careful. The creature did not infest Nicholas by coincidence."

"The only one who can destroy the creation..." started the youngest sister.

"...is the creator," finished her eldest.

I stopped and looked over my shoulder at the Fates. The middle sister was back in command by the time I had turned around.

"You are the only one who knows how to stop this creature."

I frowned at the Fates, feeling suddenly powerless under all the pressure they were putting on me.

"Great," I said, "Except that I don't..."


	17. FaceOff

_As always, disclaimers on the first chapter!_

_Not much in the way of commentary this time. Only 3 more chapters after this one! Thanks everyone for the comments so far. I've enjoyed reading them, and I look forward to reading more ^..^  
_

**Face-Off**

I blinked against the blinding white light that surrounded me. The Fates had sent me where I needed to go with nothing but the clothes I was wearing. Bitches... They could have at least given me a weapon of some kind. Something sharp and pointy.

The best thing I could think of doing was just start walking and see where it took me. The further I walked, the more my mind wandered. First I wondered if this is what one of my projects felt like, when I tried to photograph it on one of those endless background set-ups. Endless background... What else was endless, besides the lack of path I was walking? That torture dimension that the Fates sent Eve to, in _Haunted_. Wait a minute... Did they send me there, instead?! If I find my way out of here...

A cry caught my attention and distracted me from my mental ranting. I blinked and looked off to my right, where I heard it come from. A black speck in the distance was the only thing breaking up the monotonous white, way off in the distance. I quickly changed my direction and headed toward it.

The speck grew in size quickly, soon becoming two black blobs and finally two human-looking shapes. The sound I heard earlier had lowered to a constant whimpering accented with the occasional wail, as if being kicked. Something in my gut went cold, and I switched from a walk to a jog.

"Why do you even bother continuing to _live_, Nicholas. You just mooch off your father's success and hide in Clay's shadow. What good are you? You can't be the Pack puppy forever."

I stopped in my tracks. There was something eerily familiar about that voice that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I couldn't stay stopped for long. Verbal abuse was one of the few things I couldn't stand being around and do nothing about. I started walking toward the forms again, feeling my face get hotter with each step I took, especially when I realized that it was just a kid huddled on the ground.

"What makes you think I'd ever want to be with the Pack omega? You're the errand boy, just barely tolerated by the rest of them. Even _Logan_ was of more use to the Pack, and he was a nineteen year old who lived hundreds of miles away. The offspring of a mutt on top of all that."

I launched myself at the taunters back, hoping to knock them to the ground and get a few punches in before I got my ass handed to me. I sailed right through them, though, and landed on my head on the other side of the kid. That wasn't quite what I expected. In the surprised silence that followed, I climbed to my feet and looked down at the kid.

"Kid" was only an accurate description if I was referring to what I was looking at. He looked to be about eleven, maybe twelve. When I looked even closer at him, he whimpered and hid his face from me, but there was no mistaking those dark brown eyes, despite the youthful face they were set in. Nick was the one being tormented, which could only mean...

When I looked higher up, I saw my own face glaring back at me. It felt like an old west face-off. I was toe to toe, head to head with my doppelgänger. The Leviathan looked exactly like me, with my mouth twisted in an angry snarl that made me look far more ugly than I ever perceived myself in an actual mirror. Who the hell was this bastard to steal my face and make it all nasty looking. Fuck that! You only get one chance to kick me, and he took the route of getting into Nick. Like hell it was gonna make me look all ugly, too!

I let my eyes shift to the battered mind's eye version of Nick: a young boy huddled in a corner and trying to not cry. I could almost hear him repeating the words "big boys don't cry" over and over to himself. I felt my jaw tense to the point that I thought I was going to crack my teeth as my gaze turned back to the Leviathan.

"Like what you see, mother dearest?"

To hear my own voice mocking me just fueled my anger. This fucker was so going to pay! Without a bantering response, I ran full tilt toward the Leviathan, taking a swing at it. My arm passed right through it's torso and I tumbled gracelessly to the ground for the second time.

My head was jerked up as the Leviathan yanked on my braid. I yelped, which only made him laugh at me. The laughing... Always the fucking laughing... He pulled me to my feet using only my hair and forced me to look at him, still wearing my face.

"You really broke the mold when you created me, didn't you? No body to attack, and able to play on the worst of a person's nature. Able to feed off their very minds. I'd be proud, if I wasn't so ashamed of what a weak piece of shit you really are."

I struggled, trying to free myself from the Leviathan's grip. "I'm not..."

"Not weak?"

Another harsh laugh tore from his throat as he threw me to the ground. I landed flat on my back, in the perfect position for him to stand over me. I gasped and felt hot tears stream down my face as the Leviathan's foot planted itself firmly on my knuckles.

"What? Are you crying? Miss High-Pain-Threshold is whimpering over a little weight on her hand?"

Hearing my own voice in that high-pitched mocking tone just grated on the back of my head. I brought my other hand around and tugged at the foot on my right hand. "Get off me, fucker..."

"You're a sick fuck, you know that? I mean, your twisted fascination with movies like Ginger Snaps with all it's blood, guts, gore, and sex is one thing. You get off on that, don't you? But to create something like me?" He smirked, "That's just classic. Nothing quite like your own mind coming back to bite you in the ass, huh?"

As I struggled to free myself from the Leviathan, my mind whirred with questions. How was he able to hold me down, but I couldn't even tackle him? How was he able to pull my hair? How was I going to beat something of my own imagination? But every time I thought my mind was closing in on an idea, he would say something that would distract me. Something that would bring up self-doubts on my abilities and even who I was.

That was when it hit me. Not an idea, but the Leviathan. A lovely kick across the jaw that sent my rolling, but at least freed me from his foot.

"Pay attention! Stupid bitch... But what else should I expect? Twenty-five, and you couldn't even finish college."

I forced myself to sit up quickly, blinking as a wave of dizziness threatened to push me back down. I couldn't, though. Down meant an advantage for my opponent. And why did he have to bring up my college background? Fucker... I was in the GATE program in school. I taught myself web design languages back in the nineties!

Then, it finally hit me. The idea I was waiting for. I should treat my brain to something special if it survives this. I slowly climbed to my feet, wiped my mouth and glared at the creature that looked like me.

"Pansy," I whispered.

"What was that?" Both the Leviathan's eyebrows shot up, an expression that I know I've used so many times when over exaggerating mock-surprise. "Are you actually trying to stand up for yourself?"

I looked around the whiteness that was Nick's mind, my eyes resting a moment on the huddled figure of how Nick saw himself. "You took easy pickings." I shifted my eyes to meet the Leviathan's gaze. "You couldn't find a more satisfying meal in someone stronger? Weak..."

"Stronger?" the Leviathan snorted. "Surely you don't mean yourself."

"Why not? You keep boasting that you can take me." I threw my arms wide. "So, take me already!"

I saw the hesitation. Too strong, Nyx. Too strong. So I looked to Nick again, allowing myself to appear distracted by my own thoughts and worries. Seeing Nick there, hiding from me because of what the Leviathan had done using my image did distract me for a moment. I took a deep breath, feeling it stutter in my chest.

That was all the Leviathan needed. Everything went black as he forced his way past my mental barriers and into my mind, causing the worst migraine I had ever had. My last coherent thought was relief that he wasn't in Nick anymore.


	18. Madness

_As always, disclaimers on the first chapter!_

_Yes, I am an evil cliff-hanger person! At least, though, these chapters have worked out so that the worst of the cliffhangers happened on on a Tuesday, rather than a Thursday! Blame luck for that one! :D_

_This chapter was the most difficult for me to write, and required the assistance of TrinityLast when I did write it. I never realized how difficult it was to play mind games with one's own self until I had to do it.  
_

**Madness**

The average sentient creature, human or otherwise, would sooner retreat into their own mind and focus on getting rid of what scares them than, say, focus on what isn't hurting them. Fight or flight, what ever it takes to get away from it. I never understood this mentality of walling yourself in with your fears until it was just you and it with no way out. It always struck me as dangerous, overloading one's fight-or-flight reactions until they were nothing but whimpering, mewling babies.

When the Leviathan trapped me in my own mind, all I could see was black. It was the complete opposite of what I saw in Nick's mind, including, to my relief, the very lack of Nick. I held my hand in front of my eyes and was just as glad to see that I wasn't standing in darkness, just the black background that is my near-empty thoughts.

"Nick, Nick, Nick... Is that all you think of?"

I turned to look behind me, seeing a shadow move through the blackness, circling me at a slow and steady pace.

"It's aaaaaall about Nick. What makes you think he could ever really care about you, anyway? How many women has he had before? How many do think he's had since you arrived?"

I licked my lips and lowered my eyes. "He may have... He still even might, despite what you have done to him!"

I heard the Leviathan chuckle, a low and deep sound. "Oh, I doubt that. It was an accident, your coming to Stonehaven. A happy accident, but how many of those do you really get?"

"Not many," I murmured in agreement.

"Besides," he continued, "you don't really belong there anyway. No matter how much you may love it, you don't deserve to be there." He paused a moment then laughed softly to himself, as if he realized something funny. "You never really did belong anywhere, did you? LACHSA, five hundred students who all felt themselves outcasts in the normal school systems, and you couldn't even get yourself to belong there either. An outcast among outcasts."

"No, I don't..." I smirked at him. "But, then I suppose you should be thanking me for that. If I wasn't the way I am, I wouldn't have had the drive to create you, would I?"

He stopped in front of me and cocked his head to the side. "You know, you're right." He leaned in, his foul breath hot against my ear. "Thank you," he whispered. "Thank you for being such a whiny piss ant that you felt the need to create a creature like me to enable your masochistic tendencies."

The Leviathan stepped back and started laughing as he looked me over. "And look where it got you! All grown up. Don't you wonder what the doctors are saying?" He smirked and his voice went quieter, "Listen, and you might be able to hear them..."

"Doctors?" I furrowed my brow and cocked my head to listen, even though I knew better then to do that. "What doctors?"

"Why, the ones at the mental clinic," he chuckled. Suddenly he stopped and looked at me thoughtfully. "Did you really think this all was real? That you're a _werewolf_?" He barked a harsh laugh. "I thought you were more grounded then that. But, then again, you were working all those hours..."

"Nice try," I rolled my eyes, "but if that were fact, you wouldn't be here. They'd have me so doped up that you would be nothing but light and color."

As if right on cue, the darkness came alive with light and color of the likes my eyes had never seen before. Having lived in such warm climates most of my life, I had never seen either of the Auroras, but I suppose that was how my mind's eye interpreted it. Did I summon this, though? What the hell was it, exactly? When I stepped up to the lights and peered into them, I saw my own memories as if they were little movies in my brain. I smiled a bit as I watched some of them.

That smile faded when I felt the Leviathan behind me again.

"Well, I suppose a book world is as good of a place as any to disappear into when one has a nervous breakdown." He paused a moment. "And I _do_ like the colors. Very nice; much better than that dreary black you had. By the way," he continued with detachment, "watch your side. You should be feeling a bit of a prick. Probably because it's almost supper time."

I tried to ignore him, stepping closer to the lights and memories. There were so many... Then I heard it, faint at first like the whistle of a very soft breeze. When they started getting louder, I was able to make out words. Whispers about UCI Medical Center and a man named Doctor Dummon, dosages and therapy. I shook my head and my heart started to race. I felt like I was back in the Hall of Whispers in the Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance. I would try to jump away from them, but another whisper would speak to me from another angle. I could feel the Leviathan watching me.

I turned to face him. When my back was to my own memories, the whispers got louder.

"Dosage...blood pressure...eyes unfocused, not..." came a female voice from my left.

"Don't want to...moving her...traumatic...high incidence of...if there's no change..." a male voice on my right filled in the empty space between the female's words.

I clamped my hands over my ears and screamed. "Bullshit!" I glared at the Leviathan who was staring at something over my head, "I call bullshit on you!"

He tore his eyes from the memory he was watching and graced me with an almost fatherly smile. "Are we playing cards now? You always did love the game of Bullshit. Although, I suppose you denying all this fact is predictable of you. Deny, deny deny... But, has it occurred to you that, if your subconscious wanted to snap you out of this, the best choice is me. Who else could rile you up like this?" His smile became a toothy grin, but his eyes darted back up to something over my head.

I shot the Leviathan another glare, still panting from my earlier scream. "My subconscious wouldn't pick you... It'd _never_ pick you..."

"It's a subconscious for a reason," he said quietly. I noticed his reluctance to look at me again. "No one has control over it. What other character have you written that you were _this_ passionate about? There were no others. And, really, you must realize how ludicrous it is that you are here, arguing with yourself."

"Goddess, you're such an idiot..."

"Don't call yourself names, Nyx," he interrupted me. "It's tacky."

"Subconscious doesn't mean completely out of control. How else would you explain lucid dreaming?"

I paused. Had I actually hit on something? The Leviathan fed off one's own fears, taking memories and twisting them. Using one's own mind against them, forcing them to pay attention to him while he showed them what they wanted to see the absolute least in the world.. He was just a walking, talking nightmare. What if there was a way to take the reigns out of his hands?

"And there were many that I created that I carried far more passion for," I continued, trying to formulate a plan while distracting him. "There was the original Nyx Goldstone. All brawn, very little brain, though. Or what about Anastasia 'Snow Wulf' Death-Takes-Last? Brain, brawn, and had both a master and a half-brother who were there for her. I'm sure you, of all people, remember the de Fays; Bevan, in particular."

As I spoke the name of the characters I created, wrote, and played, they appeared as memory flashes to the Leviathan, surrounding him and backing him into the wall of memories that he was so fascinated with a moment before. I watched with smug satisfaction as his eyes darted to each memory as they came up and disappeared, taking an unsure step back from each one.

"I don't know why you chose me," he said, not looking at me.

I heard the voices start to resurface, talking about bedsheets, bedpans, and catheters. I pushed them away, focusing on something else. Something that wasn't Leviathan created. The first thing that came to mind was a song, _Broken_ by Seether. Hell if I knew why that was the first thing I thought of, but I wasn't quite in a place to complain yet. I'd deal with the facts later.

"As long as you're in this room, real life doesn't have to touch you."

I could tell that he was striving for my attention again, but I refused to give it to him.

"No decisions have to be made," he continued, "no bills have to be mailed out. Hell, they've got you catheterized so you can piss in a tube! You don't even have to think about getting up to pee."

"Television, computer, and pissing in a tube," I mumbled distractedly, "Sounds like heaven, considering what a lazy ass I am."

The Leviathan closed his eyes and leaned against the wall behind him. I noticed that he sank in a bit, much like one would distort the shape of a hammock when laying in it. I was close and I somehow knew it. "Suddenly you acknowledge where you are? Are you that afraid of intimacy that you can't let yourself get attached to even a figment of your own imagination?"

I looked at the Leviathan with an overly exaggerated expression of suspicion. "How did you know that?" I whispered just a little too loudly.

He looked up at me oddly. "I'm a part of your mind. How else would I—"

"Yes, that's right!" I squealed. "You _are_ a part of my mind! Which means that soon the nice doctors will make you go away. I'll be drugged up with pills and shots and everything else they've got for killing the imagination side of the brain."

"Someone has been watching too much _Drop Dead Fred_," the Leviathan said wryly. His eyes darted side to side, worry in them clear as crystal. "They don't drug you up that much in real hospitals. You're knocked out because...because you retreated into your own head. They gave you a sedative to make sure you won't wake up and hurt yourself. Sometimes they let you come around so a shrink can talk to you." He laughed, soft and nervous. "Hasn't done much so far, obviously, since you're still here."

I giggled madly and bounced on the balls of my feet. He was buying his own story because he thought I was. YES! The opening that I needed. "They're gonna come and they're gonna make you go far, far away!" I said in a singsong voice. "And then my real friends will be here to play with me all day long."

He furrowed his brow at me. "They can't make me go away, dear. Only you can..."

I blinked at him before pressing my fingertip to my lips and turning away, taking a few steps into the void that was my mind as if I had forgotten about my foe. "I wonder if Kata will bring me cookies..." I gasped and grinned, "Or congo bars!! It could be Yule time all year long!"

"How will you eat them, princess? You're un-con-scious!"

I knit my eyebrows together in thoughtfulness as I turned back around and paced back the way I came. I pretended to be still so engrossed in my own thinking and that I didn't notice him. But I watched him. I watched as sweat started to form on him and his ability to concentrate on me started to wane. The deeper he sunk into the wall of my memories, the more overwhelmed he seemed to get.

"Of course, we'll have to invite the Duke to the tea party... But Kitty doesn't like him." I giggled again, keeping up with the insanity act, no matter how embarrassed it made me feel. "Maybe Kitty'll eat his balls..."

The Leviathan thought I wasn't watching him, and I knew it because he shook his head as if to clear it. He closed his eyes and tried to steady his breathing, letting his bad ass act fall just for a moment as he leaned further into the wall as he shielded his eyes against the brightness.

I let my voice lower to a nervous whisper as I continued my pacing. "But what about my tiara party? No one will come if Kitty does that..."

When I turned back around to face him, he was squinting at me as if trying to figure out what I was doing. His hands swatted at things that weren't there, but I could see them in the memories. He shook his head again and buried his face in his hands to get away from the visions.

"What do you think, Mr. Opossum?" I giggled again. "Opossum... Your parents must have really hated you." Another giggle and then I pirouetted. "It will be the most fabulous Chanukkah bush ever!"

I stopped and watched the Leviathan, dropping the entire insanity facade. He was swatting away visions that only he could see, breathing heavy with panic. His eyes met mine, wild with the sensory overload he was getting from fighting with my memories and not having me to focus on. I dusted my jeans and squatted down right next him, leaning in close to his ear.

"That sensation? That pain all in your mind?" I whispered, "Welcome to madness. This is what you did to all those people for all those months that you were here. Does it taste good?"

The Leviathan growled at me, taking a swing with his arm that I easily dodged. He was trying so hard to focus on me, to block out the barrage of thoughts and dreams that overloaded him.

I moved back into place, right next to him. "I created you, brought you into being. I think it's time to take that privilege away. Say goodnight, sweet prince."

Standing up, I dusted off my jeans and turned away from my creation. I ignored him as I hunted for a way out of my own mind. I was ready to go back, to see Nick again, to make sure no lasting damage was done. Behind me, I heard the Leviathan scream. The room suddenly was very bright, then I was surrounded by complete darkness and silence.


	19. Return

_As always, disclaimers are on the first chapter!_

_Not much in the way of commentary. I've got nothin' to comment on! I was surprised I didn't hear anything from anyone in the last chapter. Bah...  
_

**Return**

"Stop your... Shut-UP! I think she's waking up!"

The last time I heard an echoing voice like that, I had woken up in a cage. This time, I felt a body move under me and I recognized the voice. I opened my eyes to see the face of my brother, Kata, hovering over me from behind. I blinked once, sighed heavily, and started to close my eyes again.

"No! No, no, no! You can't go back to sleep, Nyxie." I felt his hand brush my hair from my face. "The doctors said to keep you awake if you woke up."

My eyes flew open. "Doctors? What fucking doctors!?" My voice was hoarse and very quiet, as if I hadn't used it in a long time. I struggled to sit up, but my brother held me to him by wrapping his arms around my shoulders and across my chest.

Kata looked at someone that was down by his feet, frowning a bit. "You were found... We were hoping you'd be able to tell us what happened."

I squirmed a bit, sitting up so that I was leaning back against his chest. Across the room was a nurse, preparing something out of my sight. Sitting on the edge of their chairs, at my bedside, were my past roommates Lona and Tyger. Only three...?

"Where's everyone else?" I rasped.

"Mom, Dad, and your parents are all home," Lona answered. "They took turns here with you yesterday. It's our turn now."

"Where am I?"

"UCI Medical."

I started to feel the prickle of tears in my eyes. "What am I doing here?" I whispered.

"Sistah..."

I tilted my head back to look up at Kata.

"You were found unconscious in Anaheim about a week ago," he continued. "We were... We were hoping you'd be able to tell us what happened to you. You've been missing for about half a year."

"What??" I tried to sit up, but Kata insisted on me staying down by tightening his arms around me. "What do you mean 'missing'?"

"You dropped off the face of the planet about six months ago. No one could find you, your phone was cut off, everything. Then, one night about a week ago, you were found with only your ID on you."

All I was able to do was blink up at my brother. Before my brain could formulate the next question, the doctor came in.

I was released from the hospital within a few days. I never told them what really happened to me, just that I couldn't remember and that I didn't know how I ended up in Anaheim. They said that I showed no signs of brain damage, but I knew that someone had "suggested" that I be watched carefully.

That wasn't too difficult, considering that in six months I had lost my apartment, my job, and my car. I moved back in with Lona, Tyger, and Kata, who all promised to help me get back on my feet. That part wasn't so easy. I didn't have the heart to tell them that I didn't want to be back on my feet. No, that's wrong... I didn't have the desire to make the effort this world required of me.

At first, I tried. I tried to feel better about my situation. The Leviathan was gone, back to nothing but a creature of my imagination. Nick was safe...or, back to nothing but a creature of Kelley's imagination. Goddess, was that a depressing thought. I tried to get a job, but I just couldn't focus on it. Normally, I'd fall back to web design for an income, but not this time. Maybe further down the road, but I wasn't ready then.

What I tried the hardest, though, was to Change. I figured that, maybe, just maybe, if I could become a wolf again, there would be not only proof to myself of what happened, but I would get back that feeling of freedom during a run. A part of me knew that running alone wouldn't be nearly as much fun as running with the Pack, but it was like having a bit of what had finally made me happy back. It never happened; and as time continued on, I fast lost hope that I'll ever Change again.

I spent my days moping on the couch, watching television but never really seeing what was on. It took me years to finally get back in the groove of just living. I started working from home again, finally able to design websites again for the technologically inept. It was almost like I took that job back up in memory of Nick. Each site that looked like crap that I redesigned, I was reminded of that first night we argued over the reds and greens he picked. A bitter sweet reminder of what I had to leave behind.

All that changed, coincidentally enough, on the night of the Wolf moon.


	20. Shifted

_As always, disclaimers are on the first chapter!_

_Well, here it is. The end. Thanks to everyone who followed from first post to last post! All your comments were greatly appreciated!! LURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRVES!! I hope to see your comments in other stories I write! Enjoy the end of **Shifted**!  
_

**Shifted**

It had been years since Nyx left and he hadn't thought about her in all that time; or, at least, Nick had himself almost convinced that he wasn't thinking about her. Nick sat quietly in his room, staring at his reflection in the mirror across the way. Ever since he had seen Elena, pregnant with the newest addition to the Pack, his mind started to wander back to Nyx more and more often. Before she left, he thought he had started to feel something different for her. Something that he didn't feel for any other woman he had been around before. After she disappeared, he tried to put her out of his mind. Gone was gone, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Yet, his mind always went back to "What if...?" What if she had stayed? What if he did want her as a mate? He shook his head, trying to rid himself of these thoughts. As he stared at his computer screen, trying to focus on the site he was designing, the memories crept back into his mind. He mentally replayed the year that she was with the Pack, from meeting her to their business trip. His mind always overplayed and added to the parts where they were in the woods during the trip to see the council. Luckily he was at home and didn't need to control that.

Then there were the last few memories. The ones where Nyx was taunting him, playing on his innermost fears. He believed those words, at the time. She knew so much about them without ever being told that they couldn't be anything but true. It wasn't until long after that he started to doubt them. Even after it was explained to him what happened, that the taunting was the creature feeding off of him, he didn't doubt the words. He saw Nyx speaking them, she was gone when he woke up. It was impossible that they were all fake.

It was easy to forget Nyx when he was sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she hated him and saw him as a powerless child. Doubt always had a way of creeping in, though. He dreamed of her every night for weeks after. They were always dreams of how he knew her, not how he last saw her. Then his certainty was shattered the night he overheard Antonio and Jeremy talking in the study of Stonehaven.

"I'm sure she knew better, Jer," Antonio had said quietly. "Not saying something isn't agreeing. It's just no answer."

"Sometimes no response is as good as agreeing."

"You were looking out for what was best for the Pack."

"She could have just let things be, taken the easy route and ran. There was no reason for her to help Nick. She should have been part of the Pack, Tonio..."

There was silence from Antonio. Sometimes no response was as good as agreeing...

Nick hated going on runs alone, but he did anyway that night. He needed to get away, clear his head, and re-sort out the things he had already come to conclusions on. The grounds of Stonehaven were perfect for a werewolf on a solo run. Nick could only remember a few trespassers that were easily dispatched by Clay and Elena. The farther he ran from the house into the woods, the more his mind seemed to shed the negative thoughts he was holding onto about Nyx. He was still unsure, though, when he stopped to rest. Curled up in a tight ball, his nose touching the tip of his tail, Nick drifted off to sleep.

He dreamed that he heard whispers. Three female voices talking to each other and ignoring his call.

"Is this wise, sisters?"

"What is wisdom but just a successful chance in the dark."

"Very true, sisters. Hopefully this is one of them."

Nick tried to call out to the voices, but none of them seemed to hear him. The next thing he knew, he was outside of a large house illuminated by the bright full moon. The weather was warm, too warm for New York at this time of year. He looked around at the greenery, slightly brown with neglect. There was concrete as far as the eye could see. Too much for any werewolf to be comfortable with, even a city-raised one like himself.

When he heard voices across the street, he peered out through the bushes at the porch. Nyx was sitting on the front steps, a woman who looked like she could be Nyx's sister was sitting down next to her.

"What is it?" Nyx mumbled.

The other woman leaned against her, resting her head on Nyx's shoulder.

"Lona, please... I just..." Nyx sighed and slumped a bit, obviously wanting to be alone but unable to say so.

"You're not crazy, you know," Lona said quietly. Nick saw her eyes tilt up as if trying to judge Nyx's reaction from the awkward angle she was in.

"Yeah, sure..."

"I know where you went. Taira found me while you were gone..."

Nyx pulled back from her friend and narrowed her eyes at her. "What?"

"Taira... Connected to some guy named Kenneth." Lona blinked at Nyx. "He—"

"You know who Kenneth's spirit guide is? You knew all this time and you didn't tell me?" Nyx scowled. "You knew it all and you left Brudder and Tyger in the dark? You—"

"Yes, I knew. I wanted you home. I wanted you home right then!"

"Lona, I was _happy_ there! I was a part of something there!"

"You're a part of something _here_, Nyx! Part of us, part of this family, part of this coven."

Nick shifted his position in his hiding place, but stopped when Nyx looked over across the street. Her eyes darted up and down the street, as if looking for something. _How like her. _ Nick smiled to himself, _Always looking for danger. I wish I could just..._

Nyx had turned back to Lona to continue talking to her. "I had a sense of belonging there. I felt like I had a purpose. I..." She stopped, as if not wanting to admit her next thought to herself or anyone else.

"You what, Nyx?" Lona put her head back down on her coven sister's shoulder.

"I met Nick," she mumbled, leaving it at that as if those three words held more meaning than what they were.

The two women were quiet for a long time, Lona's eyes distant as if she were considering her friend's words. "Then we'll find a way," she said finally, quiet enough that Nick almost didn't hear her. "We'll find a way to get you back, together, as a coven."

_No, you don't need to go back. I'm right here!_ Nick scrambled to get up and climb through the bushes of his hiding place. He stopped when two men came out of the front door.

One of the men, tall with strawberry blond hair, sat next to Nyx and put his arm around her. She leaned into him and closed her eyes. Nick froze in his tracks, his heart beating hard in his chest. Who was that man? Why was his arm around Nyx? Nick had never seen her so comfortable with any man like that. Even when Nick himself rested against her, all those years ago, he was able to feel her muscles tense. Was this her boyfriend? A lover she never told him about? It had been a few years...

Nick sat back on his heels, watching as Nyx and the blond sat together quietly and the other two went back inside. He couldn't believe that he was feeling jealous. After all, he didn't have the right to, but he still felt it stirring deep in his gut.

When Nick looked back at the stairs, Nyx was the only one there. Where had the blond gone off to? He was about to give up and try to go home without bothering Nyx, but if she was alone... He stood up again, ready to cross the yard to greet her.

"Why the fuck are you spying on us, asshole?"

Nick spun around to find himself face-to-face with the man who was sitting with Nyx just moments before. Without even thinking, Nick put his hands up with palms out and took a step back from him. "Uhm..."

"Kata? What did you find?"

Nick turned his head to see Nyx coming across the yard toward them. He was used to being slick when a woman was around. This reunion was about as far from that as he could get. He grinned sheepishly at her, with a small wave of his fingers to match. "Hi, Nyx..."

Nyx blinked in surprise. "Nick?!"

"You know this guy?"

She didn't take her eyes from Nick's as she responded to Kata. "Yeah, I do... But... How...?"

Kata stepped back from Nick and around him to Nyx. "Who is he?" he asked her quietly.

"He's...a little difficult to explain right now."

Nyx's hazel eyes still had not moved from their spot, locked on Nick. Kata watched the two for a moment. "I'll be inside if you need me, sistah."

Nick looked up at Kata as he walked away, watching until he was sure that the other man was too far away to overhear them. "Who's that?" he grumbled irritably, slowly lowering his arms until his hands were at his sides.

"That's Kata," Nyx answered, her voice tight.

Nick frowned. "Oh..." he mumbled, followed by a sharp "OW!" He glared at Nyx after she had slugged him in the shoulder. "What was that for?!"

"_Kata_," she said again, stressing the name as she tried to remind him. "My _brother_, Kata."

"Your...?" Nick's eyebrows suddenly shot up in recognition and realization. "Oh!"

Nyx scowled at him. "Yeah, 'oh!'" She shook her head impatiently.

Nick flinched, the barb had hit a little deep. "I... Well... I didn't...I mean..."

She blinked up at him and suddenly smirked. "Wait, wait! You were..." her smirk spread into a grin, "Were you _jealous_??"

He stood up straighter, his hands balled into fists at his sides. "No! I'm not—" Suddenly the denial just seemed wrong. Nick let his head drop until his chin was against his chest, admitting defeat against his own emotions. "Yeah, I was jealous..."

Nyx was still grinning at him when he finally dared to allow himself a stolen glance at her. Her lips twitched a bit and suddenly she was laughing. It was a sound he had missed greatly in all the time that had passed, but remembered as if he has heard it just recently. The laughter ended in a bit of a sigh as she wiped a tear from her eye.

Nick frowned for a moment as he watched her, laughing at his jealousy. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe the feelings were only one-sided. Maybe... Maybe her lips shouldn't be so damn tempting. The hypnosis seemed to last only until she moved to wipe her eyes, and suddenly Nick felt himself closing the minute distance that separated them.

Her kiss was as sweet as ever. One moment he was surprised that he had Nyx in his arms again, then the next he realized that she was pressed up against him. Her scent, her taste, everything about her brought back those fond memories of when they were together. Her eager kiss washed away all the doubts that he ever had while she was gone. She was here, she was now, and she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

Nyx pulled back from him reluctantly, a wide smile on her lips. Their eyes met and no words needed to pass between the two. Both knew it was one of those sappy, romantic movie moments that didn't need words for them to understand each other.

"Come on," she said quietly as she took his hand and pulled him toward the house. "Let's get you properly introduced to the others."

**END**

* * *

_You're still here? Good! I have a little surprise for you!_

_Not long after finishing **Shifted**, I commissioned an artist to draw the final scene of the story! Dolphy did a wonderful job with the actually pretty minimal information I gave her. Mostly, she worked off the last few paragraphs and a really brief description of Nick and Nyx. Since you're still here, I'd thought I'd share! ENJOY!  
_

http[colon]//dolphy[dot]deviantart[dot]com/art/Nyx-and-Nick-79080053

_Uhm... Sorry for the strange way of putting the URL in. It wouldn't stick any other way. Just replace the [colon] and [dot]s with their appropriate symbols, and you're good!_


End file.
